The Impracticalities
by Cara-bloody-Haze
Summary: As three young ladies make their way through a new universe, learn how to deal with bending powers, really quite (too) attractive boys, and a hundred year war, they uncover facts, secrets, stories and feelings never known to the human soul.
1. Forget-Rise and Shine-Normal

Part I

Live in the Moment

"_Fire Eye 'd Boy"_

Crossing A Universe

Maude, Florence, Cara

Maude

Forget

_In the space between thirty seconds, three minutes and half an hour, you have a sharp range of factors to include in an introduction. Of course, you have restrictions, for one; end with a beginning. Begin with a-_

Damn it all.

Ask yourself this, how does one write the introduction paragraph on a paper subjected to 'introductions'? One _doesn't_. Clearly, one's teacher is having a bad day. One's teacher like's seeing pain expressed in one's class and so instructs a duty. One's teacher's instructed duty can only possibly be the impossible. And now, one is failing at one's third attempt to writing an introduction on 'introductions'. One doesn't particularly enjoy failing. Then again, one doesn't particularly enjoy general schooling. That didn't stop the government from landing one in public school. One is not- to a certain degree- exactly friendly with the world- (the whole bloody wide world) for landing one in this predicament.

Maude Smith did not like surprises (to put it lightly), so she never felt the need to consider them. Also, surprises being surprises, you really aren't _supposed_ to consider them. Also, she didn't like plenty of other things, it wasn't just surprises. Also, an explanation will be provided to a later date. She had a plan, and no one was allowed to knock it up or down a level, shake it left and right, or generally toy with it. Maude was clever and logical and had her feet planted on the ground. No gust of wind could push her over.

It was afternoon, mid, she supposed (much, much later). Her pen tapped on the paper on the desk on the cold tile floor. Two minutes until the bell, she need only restrain herself that little bit longer. In a blur of agonizingly long nothingness, it was finally over. Maude ran to the breezy outdoors to meet up with her friends, her backpack hastily swung over her shoulder. She was relieved to be going home- after such a day. It was hotter than it should have been, she thought. Her massive bunch of curly, and unfathomably bright cherry red hair clung to her neck, and her eyes, comparable to the grey sky post-storm were often covered by her falling lids. In short, they day had drawled by (and by drawled she could only mean; took seven billion years in approximation).

They greeted her with normality, and the shortest of the trio scooped up her backpack hurriedly.

"Damn, I left my binder in Science Lab." Maude cursed. It was Friday, you couldn't have sugar without a little salt in her life. She _was_ rather forgetful. Maude sighed extensively. The most negative expresser of their group, Cara made it her mission to let out the most disappointedly strangled moan ever witnessed and Flo exhaled at length to support the shorter's reaction.

"Come with me to get it, it's better then just staying here," she reasoned, "I'm really sorry," she added to be safe.

Cara would probably argue- she did, it was unlike her not to- though it didn't last long, her attention span was that of a six-year-old. They walked back into the building and down the stairs that lead only to the basement. It was dim lit and eerie. Not the sort of eerie in a horror movie, when you were waiting for the blood thirsty murderer with marriage problems to pounce any moment, but the sort of eerie you feel in a place that should never be empty and then suddenly is. Maude went straight to the Lab, this was too creepy for her taste.

Cara trailed behind her lazily, stepping between rays of sunshine from the small windows. White-silver hair, some choppy and loose, some in tiny discreet braids was restless on her shoulders as she looked this way and that- a facade to appear as though she cared. Flo made a turn into the boiler room, it was left open, and she'd always wanted a look inside. Maude searched around a little until she found her binder hidden under her neighbors table. She wondered about it's traumatizing journey between desks.

"Got it-" "Guys! Come check this out." Cara perked a little at the sound of mystery. Maude found herself being drawn towards her friends voice even more so.

They all came together around a valve.

"Oooh, a valve- well done Flo!" Cara grumbled, undoubtedly disinterested.

"I wonder why it's painted." Maude was curious; red, green, blue and yellow starting in the middle of the valve and expanding to the edge. She hesitated to reach out and trace the colors.

"What's this doing in our school? Look, the pipe it's stuck on doesn't even connect to anything," she pointed. Nobody found it necessary to reply any time in the next century until after what felt like ages;

"Bloody hell..." Cara sighed, rolled her eyes, reached forward and twisted the valve sharply.

"Why'd you do that!?" Flo exclaimed. "Well what was the point in just looking-" she began to expand, her eyes lazily half open and then abruptly wide; as there was suddenly a burst of light. Maude squealed unhappily, this was not part of her plan at all, her unmovable, unshakable, un-toy-able plan that was suddenly torn into bits and scattered across the the universe. The light flooded her vision fully for a good four seconds or so. Then, she was thrown back, and everything went black.

Florence

Rise and Shine

There are no gaps in time, time doesn't actually have gaps- thinking about it in a non-scientific sense. You cannot have missing time- time is time is time is time and there's no vast emptiness to it like there could be in the universe. Time and universe are very different, no matter how much they are compared to be similar by society or the newspaper or a textbook in the library.

There are no gaps in time, Flo reminded herself again. It's a rule that cannot possibly be broken by even the most rebelling teenage high school drop out. You _will_ remember, she urged. There must have been something besides nothing in those seconds she was knocked out. Though a part in the back of her mind (that damn adventurous part) pressed forward, what if it was a gap? What if they'd fallen into a gap stitched to portray an imperfection in time? No matter how much it compared to be indecisively alike to a gap in time, it was simply impossible.

There are no gaps in time. She exhaled heavily.

She had woke up two minutes before, assuming she'd dreamt it all up as the past hour came back to her. She sat bolt upright when she realized she was lying on dirt, not the usual soft pillow and mattress. Hair flew over her evocative chalk blue eyes. She hesitated to take in her surroundings, her friends lay across from her, unmoving.

She tensed unexplainably so and crawled over to Maude, joints creaking and aching like a ninety-seven year old. What if they'd suffered more than the headache she'd endured.

"Typical," she felt like muttering. "I'm the first to wake up."

But what if it was more serious than that? What if waking up wasn't in store for her friends?

"Maude?" she whispered. Her voice was gravelly, like she hadn't had a glass of water in a week. She stirred.

"Oh thank god. Rise and shine, sweetheart," she pursued.

"Am I dead?" Maude demanded weakly.

"This heaven sucks," she added before propping up on her elbows. They examined the area more thoroughly. To the west, was a field of cacti, and to the east, when she turned around, were a couple giant hills.

"I feel post-sloshed." Cara let out several curses, propped herself up and dragged over to Flo and Maude.

"Where are we?" she demanded. Maude looked angry, this went against all her personal rules.

"I have no clue. But I think if we start walking towards those mountains, we might have a better idea," Flo supplied. No one complained. Florence helped her friends to their feet and began to lead the other two towards the sandy hills. Within half an hour, they'd managed to pull themselves up the most part of the largest mountain.

"Uunnnggh." Cara's distaste in the heat of the desert began to show a little better and a little more often. Finally, after what felt like eternity, they were at the peak, and what Flo saw- was not what she expected.

Cara

Normal

Cara didn't really know what was going on that day, she'd been doodling, braiding bits of her hair and talking to Maude when her Physics teacher explained the plans to follow. She figured whatever it was, it wouldn't be too important, a lie, exams were nearing even faster than the end of the school year. She might have had to be prepared, but Cara really wasn't one for studying.

"Pinch me," she uttered, as she gazed over the view. It was a city. A huge city, for as far as she could see, contained in a smooth, large, very tall and thick, rock wall. The buildings were built in a chinese or japanese style, with pointed roofs and golden drains and dragon designs along their walls. As Cara concentrated, she realized a part in the middle, near the large castle like structure appeared much more upper class then the smaller cottages near the outer wall- of which there were actually three.

"We may as well go check it out. Find out where in the world we are." Maude seemed to be in complete denial, she hadn't said a word since they'd landed there, Flo was trying to be exceedingly polite and helpful at the time. They travelled down hill, it was much easier then before, and Cara didn't complain at all.

She was much too in aw.

Somehow, they'd made it to the wall in barely ten minutes and they were standing their, making up some story of why in hell they were there for two men in odd green, brown, black and white clothes with large pointed hats.

"State your business in Ba Sing Se."

"I've never even heard of this place," Maude muttered to Cara.

"Me neither," she replied shortly, sort of hoping it would console her somehow- though her Geographic knowledge appeared feeble in comparisons to Maude's.

"We're... Travelers.. Here for sightseeing." Florence was first to give explanation. They seemed to scale her up, and not in the 'checking her out' sort of way, but in the 'should I or shouldn't I run you through with my spear' sort of way.

"You may enter. Enjoy your stay at Ba Sing Se." it seemed like he had to say that all the time, and all enthusiasm was lost.

"Thanks." They made a sort of hand motion towards her and she awkwardly returned it.

"Word of advice, when you're in the city, buy some.. Normal clothes." one of them told her this blandly, then, before she could exclaim something rude, turned and moved the wall open. They put out their fists and hit their feet into the earth, sending a shudder into the wall and pulling it open slowly. The girls entered, Maude possibly- or possible not- on the verge of tears, Flo in a state of disbelief, and Cara still staring at the wall, not the city at all in a mixture of intense interest and confusion.


	2. Popular-Silk-Happy People

Maude

Popular

"Good lord. If I collapse, I give you permission to find a doctor and explain our true backstory," she groaned.

"I think we ought to find somewhere with maps- an information center or something," Flo suggested.

"I'll bet you twenty bucks that we'll find one of those in the middle of the city, where the rich people and tourists go," Cara snapped out of thought and added into the conversation. Maude found herself nodding, then walking, and then entering a small souvenir store. She idly wondered if she blanched that often without realizing it.

"Hi there, we're traveling youths... Might we see a map?" Flo cut to the point with the store merchant.

"Absolutely, that'll be two silver pieces."

"Uh. Um?" she turned to Maude for help.

"Oh." Maude reached into her backpack, which she realized she still had with her, they all did, and pulled out two quarters, they were metal, not silver, but she decided to press her luck. The merchant, thankfully, didn't look twice at the currency and told them to pick the map from the display that they wanted. They decided, after much confusion, on a map that was the... World (?) with an enlarged section on Ba Sing Se, where they were currently. They took the map outside over to a fountain, and Cara looked for some snacks in her left over lunch whilst the other's mulled over their new buy.

"So We're in this circle here because that palace is behind us- over there," Flo gestured to the colossal architecture behind her, about ten blocks away.

"Ba Sing Se is in.. The Earth Kingdom. Is this some sort of sick joke?"

"Guys. That kid did something with the dirt." Cara's sandwich dropped out of her mouth as the children on the other side of the fountain made sand buildings the height of their waists within mere seconds.

"Ignore it Cara, and close your mouth." Flo ordered determinedly.

Maude found herself breathing heavily. "This doesn't make sense, what's going on. Where's the fucking logic in-"

"-Chill out, let's find somewhere to stay for now, kay?" Cara offered, a reassuring hand on her friend's arm. They found an inn on the map, near several of the things they shared interest in, a tea shop, an antique store and a market.

Once they'd arrived, a well dressed man opened the door for them and they hurried themselves over to the registration desk.

"We'd like to book a room for... One night."

"How many?" The woman across from them was really very beautiful, she had smooth copper skin and lush burnt carmel brown hair, though she had looks, Maude decided she wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, her glazed over stare did little to intimidate the sixteen year old.

"Do you have one for three?" asked Flo.

"Only the penthouse has enough room for three," she smiled at the expectantly, she also seemed just a little repulsed by their clothing, which seemed to be getting to Florence.

"How much?" Maude asked.

"Twenty gold pieces," stated the woman bluntly.

"Will this be enough? We're.. Traveling around the world- this is.. Very popular currency in the... Water.. Tribe," she internally sighed when the woman let it pass- she could vaguely remember the landmark from the map,

"I'm sure it can be converted at the nearest bank." she dumped twenty pennies onto the raised desk.

"Lovely, thank you!" Maude left the desk slightly more enlightened.

Florence

Silk

They took their backpacks up to the top floor and entered after clicking the key in the lock.

"Old fashioned, huh? No key scanner." Cara pointed out. Flo noticed this as they entered. The room was very fancy, there were lots of small windows and dark floorboards, barely any furniture and lots of doors, also, a reoccurring theme in the city of Ba Sing whatever was that everything was shades of green or brown.

"This place is really environmentally friendly- and what was that with those people and making the ground and the walls move- I mean-" she was cut off by a sharp glare from Flo and a brief and unbelieving stare from a faint looking Maude. Cara didn't talk after that. Florence opened all the doors, there were three separate bedrooms, a large bathroom with a marble bathtub and no shower, it was green marble of course, and a sort of kitchen with a stove sink and icebox. The sinks taps were also pretty old school; all brass and detailed with etched in designs.

"Guys.. These taps are crazy awes-" shot her way was another, harsher glower. Cara _definitely_ didn't talk after that. They all made their way to the table in the middle of the room. It was low down and the seats were silk sewn pillows with dark green spiral designs, they were all slightly different showing the fact that they were hand made. They sat down.

"So, we're in another.. World. In a city called.. Ba Sing Se. We know that there are-" she pulled out the map,

"-four different.. States.. Countries, maybe? Earth Kingdom, where we are now. Water Tribe, Air Nomads, aaand Fire Nation."

"I sort of like the sound of Air Nomads, maybe we should go there," Maude mumbled, brushing hair off of her freckled face.

"Lets stay here for now. Get our groundings." Flo surprised herself, she seemed to have realized they weren't leaving this place anytime soon, so they may as well make the most of this.

"Okay.. Lets.. Sleep on it." They pulled all the blankets from their beds into the main room and put them together after all of them had come to the same conclusion that they were to shaken to sleep by themselves.

Laying in the dark, very few words were uttered; "Fire Nation sounds cool. And... Were those guys really bending the earth?" no one seemed to shush Cara up this time.

"I- I don't know. I think they were. If this is the Earth Kingdom, do you think you can bend water in the Water Tribe? Or- or Fire in the Fire Nation?" Flo expanded.

"Or Air in the Air Nomads? I sort of want to meet them!" Maude had considerably relaxed since they'd got here and seemed to be settling into the fact that everything was green and dirty.

"Maybe. That'd be insane. I wonder if you can learn all of them." Flo was curious now, but at the time, more tired then curious by a long shot. "Tomorrow guys. We'll talk tomorrow." Cara seemed to have already passed out, and within seconds Florence felt her eyelids dropping and her brain going clean of any thought.

"I bet we're going to wake up in a few hours in one of our bedrooms, having had a sleepover, and exactly the same dreams as one another," Flo silently acknowledged the only solidly unyielding thing Maude had said since they'd arrived.

Cara

Happy People

They woke her in the early hours of the morning. It was (bloody) ten thirty when she checked her watch. But then she didn't know if the time had changed at all or if time zones even existed in 'Ba Sing something'.

"This isn't my bedroom," she deadpanned.

"We're going out to talk to anyone and everyone about the world, Cara!" Flo was pretty enthusiastic, that enraged Cara just the tiniest bit. Flo had already dressed, her hair was in a swaying ponytail and there was a fresh expression of pure excite settled on her features.

Happy people in the morning was just bewildering to Cara. "Maybe we should get some new clothes, too," added Maude, who was also just waking.

They washed and put the beds back, grabbed their backpacks and ran out the door almost forgetting to lock it behind them. They rushed through the lobby, tossing the key on the half-brained lady's desk.

She didn't so much as wish them a good day.

Once they were out in broad daylight Cara let out one of her infamous moans of unhappiness. "Waaaaayyy tooo briiiiggght."

"You sound hungover," Flo snorted at her, then went up to a man on the side of the road.

"Can you tell us about the Fire Nation?" she asked him pleasantly. He looked at her, surprised then disgusted and went on his way. They tried ten more people, Cara was rude and upfront, Maude was assertive and polite, Flo remained quaint and upbeat. None of them got a single bit of information out of a single person.

"Maybe.. Maybe we should try the people in the outer rings, they might be less uptight- and maybe they wont look like they have something stuck up their-"

"-GOOD idea, Cara. Lets." they walked through the roads, after about an hour of moving they'd made it to a sketchier sort of 'make do' area.

"This is my kinda place! Look at all of the crazy crap they're selling here! And it's cobblestone, not flat. It's beautiful!" Cara was increasingly more entertained. There were people playing betting games, and people performing through dance and magic tricks. Cara hadn't seen anything the slightest bit like this in the upper ring.

"I'm actually sort of tired from walking so long, lets get a drink. How's tea?" nobody disagreed so they stepped into a small and simple tea shop. They were serviced almost immediately.

"Good afternoon ladies. You're all looking lovely today, my name is Iroh."

"Pleasure to meet you sir, thanks and all. We'd like some tea."

"Of course, right over here," he ushered them over to a wooden table and they gratefully collapsed down onto the benches.

"Mister Iroh seems cool. We should ask him about the world and what not," Cara supplied.

"Sounds good, might as well give it a try." Iroh was back in minutes,

"Here you are, hot tea!" he seemed more pleased then they were with the beverage, though he would not be drinking it.

"Thanks a load Mister Iroh, look, can we ask you something?" Cara wondered.

"Anything, my child."

"What's happening in the world?" it was a long shot yes, but what did she have to lose at this point?


	3. Tea Tavern-Orange and Yellow-Symbol

Maude

Tea Tavern

She sent one of her looks at Cara, it was a sort of 'thanks for killing every chance we had' look, so when the old man's face grew solemn and he asked what they wished to know, Maude was honestly and truthfully, deeply surprised.

Maude didn't like surprises.

Cara said "everything," and took out their map, laying it on the table. Iroh sat down. He began to explain.

"There are four elements, Fire, Water, Earth and Air. In our world, there are people who have the ability to bend those elements. A bender can only bend one element, and it is always the element of their home surroundings. There is only one bender, the Avatar, who can bend all four elements. He is the last known air bender. The Fire Nation, here-"

He pointed to the red on the map "-invaded the Air Nomads one hundred years ago and wiped them out of all living souls. Then about six or seven years ago, they invaded the northern Water Tribe, only taking their benders. Several months ago, they took hold of the southern Water Tribe, and their Princess Yue sacrificed herself and became the moon spirit."

The girls' moods darkened considerably. Cara thought to herself, who knows, maybe she'd meet the Avatar, but then, there was only one, and it's an awfully big world. "No one is sure where they will strike next, but it is rumored Ba Sing Se will be conquered soon."

"Th-Thank you very much Mister Iroh." Maude placed a dollar ninety on the table and the man squinted.

"I am not familiar with this currency," he stated calmly.

"Oh- ah- I-"

"Never fear child, on the house, though you may want to drink your tea quickly and leave with discreet haste before my manager discovers your differences."

"Thank you so much sir. We don't know how to repay you."

"Enjoying my tea is enough." he smiled at them and then left to serve the other customers in the tavern. They gulped down their tea in silence.

"Hey, do you think that's the manager?" Flo asked worriedly. There was a boy about their age, sixteen or seventeen, a huge scar over his left eye, pale, with short black hair glaring at them from the other side of the tavern. He was clutching a tea tray in both hands and his knuckles seemed to be turning white. He began to walk over to them, then he sat down and they marveled in silence.

"Heeey-"

"-Why were you talking to my uncle for so long? What do you want?" he demanded.

" Cool it, don't get moody. You don't even know who are," Cara said breezily. There seemed to be noticeable steam flaring from his nostrils.

"I will not _cool it_," he shot at her. "And because I _don't even know who you are_ is the reason I am here."

"Yeesh. We were just complimenting his tea..."

"For five minutes?"

"Yeah. Got a problem with that? We. Like. Tea." She gritted her teeth.

"Cara, let's go."

"No. No, I want to know why this guy has a problem with tea liking." Her friend's fists clenched.

"I don't have a problem with-"

"-Zuko, leave the nice ladies be. We have tea to make! Go get the ginseng leaves!" Iroh exclaimed from across the room. Maude sighed and Zuko stood to leave with plenty a terrifying glare. They walked out of the tea shop, feeling only a bit depressed. So there's a war? BENDING. WAR. BENDING. Maude couldn't really think of much else.

Florence

Orange and Yellow

They began to walk aimlessly, soon making it to the middle-class ring.

"What are we doing here you guys- ungh!"

"Aarggh!"

Maude had tripped over something- rather- someone in an attempt to ask the inevitable. "God, I'm so sorry!"

"It's fine." The boy rubbed his head, which was unique in so many ways- their attention was immediately drawn to his strange attire. He wasn't like any other in the area, he had on orange and yellow, he was bald, carried a staff and was covered in blue, arrow-like tattoos.

"Oh I love your tattoos! Wait- what are you- Eleven? Twelve? Thirteen? Are they legal?" she wondered.

"What?"

"Nothing." Florence let her attention drift, there was another boy, talking rather quickly and rather urgently to a girl who could have been his sister. She seemed disinterested. They were wearing shades of blue, Flo found the need to compliment the color, it suited them inexplicably in an oddly mysterious way.

"They're going to invade any day now! We have to get to the Earth King! After the drill, it's no telling how long we wait- then we're toast when they do come!"

"Calm down Sokka, we've already talked about this."

"The Fire Nation is invading Ba Sing Se?" Flo asked curiously.

"What? Ugh- no. I mean it's uh.." he was a little surprised, stumbling backwards as if physically influenced by her exclamation. Florence took in the new information quite fast.

"Cara, Maude. We really ought to leave now."

"It's fine, there's no where in the city we need to be right now-"

"I mean we need to leave Ba Sing Se. The Fire Nation is going to invade." she looked pointedly at the Sokka kid.

"Uh- well- yeah. You guys should make up your decision to stay or go pretty soon."

"I rest my case," she shrugged.

"Oh. God. We should get out of here. Thanks... Sokka and...friends."

"I'm Katara, his sister." She offered her hand to all of them to shake. It was nice to have a familiar greeting.

"Toph." they supposed she was blind, her eyes glazed an abnormally light shade. Something in the air about her told Flo that Cara and Toph might get along really very well.

"Aang." He grinned at them.

"He's the Avatar." Sokka added smugly.

"Haaaaooohhhh- can you bend air!? Please demonstrate!" Maude squealed, genuine interest sparkled in her eyes.

"Aww yeah! Check this out!" He pulled some marbles out of his shirt and began to spin them between his hands in a circle. He was, indeed, bending the air.

"That's amazing!" Maude exclaimed.

"Well, we'd really better leave. The city, I mean. No reason to stay." Cara put in.

"Right. Yeah. Great meeting you, Avatar Aang, Sokka Toph, Katara." Flo nodded politely to them all.

"No! Wait! I gotta see the other air tricks," Maude protested, her voice a quiet whine. They turned towards the giant outer wall and began to walk. They made it eventually, leaning against the massive architectural statement to catch their breath, and nobody asked for destination as they left. The giant wall opened for them and they were greeted by vast desert.

"We hope you enjoyed your stay in Ba Sing Se," a guard said monotonously.

"Thanks a load, mate," Cara snorted, flicking her hand from her forehead like a marine. They stepped out and the walls slammed behind them.

"So. Where are we going?"

Cara

Symbol

Nobody answered her. That was the usual response, so she was pretty unfazed. "How about the Water Tribe. I think I like the idea of that."

"Water Tribe is good. Water, I'd assume. Tribes here and there. Sounds nice."

"Water Tribe it is": They started to walk forward.

"We don't have any supplies."

"Or directions." Cara added.

"I mean, I have a compass on my watch, but I don't think that will get us too far before we're totally lost."

"Well... Hang on a second." Flo took out the map. "We're here, just outside the entrance to Ba Sing Se. There are two Water Tribes. Which one are we going to?"

"I think the northern Water Tribe."

"That is.. This way. We have to travel to the end of the Earth Kingdom and get a boat or something. I don't know how long that'll take. But We're going north-west."

"Where are we going to sleep? It's not like we have tents." Cara interrupted.

"We cant go back in, you heard the Sokka guy, they could be coming any day now." they began to walk again.

"We're going in the right direction, yeah?" Cara asked.

"I think...so.."

"Oh my god." It was a drill. It was very big and very long and very metal. The tip had already crumbled its way through a large portion of the great wall. It had a symbol on it, red, like a flame. There were earth benders surrounding it, hurriedly trying to cover it up, shouting inaudible information and instruction back and forth.

"We need to get around without being noticed," Maude stated.

"That's impossible. It's only sand, flat for miles, the mountains are in the other direction." They ran back the way they'd came until they couldn't see the drill anymore and took out the map again.

"The only other way is.. This thing called the Serpent's Pass. It'll take a lot longer because we're going by foot. We need to go dead west." Flo explained.

"Hey, it's not as far- we could probably make it there by evening!" Cara offered. Then, she looked at her watch, spun a couple times- because she was really bad with direction and pointed west.

"That way." They began to walk. Then, they talked.

"Do we have any food? I only grabbed a sandwich finger from the hotel bar on the way out. I'm positively starved."

"I didn't eat my lunch yesterday because I had to study for an essay. Oh.. Oh no. I haven't turned it in. I wonder if Miss Darnley is disappointed. I wonder if mum..." Flo's voice turned to an octave higher as she continued.

"Don't think about it. We'll.. Get back to them. Or something. We'll see." Maude sighed.

The walking continued for two hours in silence. Cara would check her watch, Maude would look behind them every fifteen minutes, Flo would think of saying something, and then wouldn't. It went on, and on, and on.


	4. Jump-Red Shoes-Crayons

Maude

Jump

What felt like an hour and a half. She was melting.

"Can we take..like.. A break or something?" Cara whined.

"I'm sure we're almost there, look the sun is setting." and it was, in front of them lay the most gorgeous sunset all three pairs of eyes had ever seen. Alarming pinks, purples and oranges lit up the sky like the sound of instruments in an orchestra.

"It really is beautiful. Isn't it?" she took the moment to bring a little 'normal' in, pointing out the clear glamour.

They walked up another hill, during which three 'I'm thirsty's and four 'are we there yet's were said. On Cara's fifth 'are we there yet' Maude didn't hold back one bit- and screeched at her with edge to shut up. When she turned away from a sort of angry Cara she was met with what she expected, a large body of water of which she could not see the end of and a thin passage of land, spiked up like a mountain at different points.

She was also met with what she did not expect; a line of black, almost sharp looking, steam boats, some terrifying black tanks, and row upon row of soldier. They were terrifying, yes, but they weren't.. Doing.. Anything. Almost as if they were on standby, Maude decided.

"What- what are they doing here?"

"We're too late- they're going to invade when the word is given." Maude said in a demeaned tone.

"We should turn back before they see us-"

"Look! Up there!" a soldier called in alarm.

"Shit," Cara uttered.

"Shut up, don't say any-"

"Seize them!" someone ordered.

"SHIT."

"This way!" Flo exclaimed, grabbing her friends arms in a tight grasp and pulling them back down the mountainous scenery.

"Which direction?" Maude panicked.

"Towards those rocks! Somewhere we can hide!" They ran with their hair flying behind them. Some how, soldiers managed to come in front of them, jumping out from behind a large boulder to apprehend them.

Cara cried out in shock, jerking around a soldier just before he had the chance to throw her to the ground and hitting the back of his helmet hard enough to knock him out.

Flo, somewhat gracefully, twirled between two soldiers, banging their heads together.

Maude, jumped so high, almost as if she was floating on the air, right over the soldier blocking her path, then once she landed, kicked him square in the middle back so he might doubled over.

The three sent questioning looks each other's way, 'how in hell did they manage that?' sort of looks.

Realizing that now was not a good time for descriptive looks at all, they had no time to worry about their new discovery, there were more soldiers coming from around the corner of the huge rock.

"Why cant we bend earth!?" Cara moaned, stooping slightly. Maude evaluated the situation. Twelve to twenty soldiers, circling them fast, three of them. The soldiers didn't have physical weapons on them, they were most likely all fire benders.

Maybe if they-

"Stand down! They're with me. What right do you have- attempting to take captive these harmless young women?" somebody entered through the ring of soldiers, they seemed to shrink back a little. "They're with me," he said again, and that was all he said after that, he lead them from the crowd of benders back to the dark, looming battleships.

Florence

Red Shoes

Who was this guy?

Flo didn't really care so much at the time, he'd saved their lives and that was enough for now. Cara and Maude were examining him rather precariously.

"Um, excuse me-"

"Dont say anything," he ordered as they passed by a few more soldiers.

"Right, sorry." she blushed, looking away, hair fell out of her up-do. He led them inaudibly up a flight of stairs within the ship and through a port hole door. He closed it and took of the helmet he'd been wearing.

"I'm sorry about that," he appeared completely sincere as he shook out his messy, short brown hair and flashed them a polite smile.

Almost at once, Flo noticed how tall he was, how green his eyes were, and how odd it was he wore bright red shoes rather then the brown leathery ones the soldiers did.

"I'm Landon Fior, commander of this ship and son of the General Magnus Fior."

"Florence Roland. Art Student and daughter of my mom and dad." He nodded, and didn't seem to notice her sarcastic hint.

"Good to meet you, Miss Florence-"

"Flo is fine."

"Yes.. Flo.." he half smiled at that and then turned to the other two.

"Cara Haze."

"Maude Smith," she smiled awkwardly.

"You all have.. Unique names. Please, tell me your business leaving the Earth Kingdom."

"We're.. Going to the northern Water Tribe." Cara smacked her arm and glowered. Well what was the point in hiding it? Flo determined that he'd already helped them enough, they owed him at least this.

"You-You cant do that!" he exclaimed.

"And why not?" Cara retorted.

"The Fire Nation has taken control of the northern Water Tribe! It'll be suicide just trying to get in there!"

"Oh! We totally forgot! Ugh, how could I have been so damn passive?" Maude raised her hands to her head in shock, inhaling sharply.

"You... You can come back to the Fire Nation.. With me, as my guests if you have no where else to go."

"Of course we cant! We've just met you," Maude sighed.

"I promise you I'll remain polite and gentlemanly, it will be as if you are staying at an Inn."

"You'd really be okay with that? We..we don't have anywhere to go when we get there- there's really no point."

"You can stay with me at Fior Manor for as long as you like."

"Wh-why?" Flo's tone was unsure.

"Yeah, and why did you even help us back there- don't get me wrong- thanks and all- but what business did you have saving our ass's anyways?" Cara demanded.

"You.. You looked like you needed help, and I don't exactly agree with the Fire Nation's way of dealing with things."

"Well, thanks," she paused. "Landon," she added quietly.

He led them to three separate rooms all clad in red and gold. Now, in their different rooms, Flo was happy to be by herself for just a little while. Landon had told them he had decided to take them back right away- the only reason he was here was to make sure the invasion didn't get too out of hand, he wanted to make sure no one was hurt excessively. Though he wouldn't be here to supervise, he was quite confident in his final conclusion.

He'd told them to meet up on the deck with the captain. Florence was first out of her three up on the deck. She gazed across the room, there was a long table for planning, with an enlarged map of the four nations, a steering wheel surrounded by little clocks and timers ticking and changing every second. When she looked out, she could see everything up to the great wall of Ba Sing Se through the wide glass windows.

Cara

Crayons

She managed to find her way to the deck in barely three minutes. There was something about big boats that intrigued Cara, she loved the steam punk air they had to them.

"Flo." she walked over to her friend, and soon after meeting with her, Landon and Maude had shown up too.

"We're going now- I'll tell Nico- I mean-," Landon smiled to himself like he'd made this mistake a hundred times, " I mean, the captain."

"Tell me what?" a boy of their their age with raggedy, curly black hair and brilliant gold eyes waltzed over. He had a rather teasing expression on his face, one that Cara hated in that moment, all of which disappeared in mere seconds.

"We're going home."

"Wh-what!? We just got here! That took three days!" he stopped in his path to dramatically present his opinion.

"We have to take Flo and her frie-"

"Wait- we're going back because of some _girls_." he said it like he couldn't believe it.

"Watch yourself, mate! We're not just some _girls_!" Cara exclaimed.

"Oh, do elaborate, yeah?"

"You dont know the first thing about us. We're probably more worthy people then you'll ever live up to be."

"I'm not going to get into a battle of wits with you; I never attack the unarmed." he snorted at her.

"I see you've set aside this specific time to humiliate yourself," she countered.

"Be quiet, Cara!" Maude hissed.

"No! I'm not done telling-"

"Be quiet Nico. We need to go home. Is that simple enough for you?" Landon ordered, crossing his arms.

"Fine.." he spat. "Right this moment?" with a tired nod in his direction he continued, "Okay. I'll give the order..."

"Wait up- _you're _the captain?"

"Yes, I am. Dilemma?" he snapped at her. "I'd explain how it happened, but I don't have any crayons with me."

"Oh, clever," Cara sniffed.

"Exceptionally," Maude added.

"Listen! It's clear you two are not going to get on-"

"Are you kidding me? He's going to be great to talk to when my mind needs a good rest," retaliated Cara.

"Cant you just be nice for now Cara?"

"I'll be nicer when he starts to be a little less thickheaded and conceited," and with that she left. Cara stormed down to the room she'd been staying in. What a dolt. What an awful, awful twit.

They weren't just some _girls_. With what they'd been through... He had no right! She slammed her port hole door behind her and collapsed onto the bed next to her, curling up.

"Jerk. asshole. Idiot. Stupid dimwit." she muttered to herself. And slowly, her anger became a hushed mutter as she fell into a slumber. Waking up, she checked her watch; 9:30 in the morning. Somebody knocked on her door.

"Hey, are you up?" their voice was muffled.

"Yeah, come in, I guess." she wiped the sleep out of her eyes and stood, wrapping the silky red sheets around her for pure comfort.


	5. Gold Stitches-Snakes-Soup

Maude

Gold Stitches

"Do you think maybe you lost your temper a bit?"

"No."

"Okay. Well, we can go and get food in the dining hall. I think I remember passing it." she suggested.

"Can we find some new clothes first?" Cara asked.

"Yeah, lets. I'll go get Flo. I'll be back in a second." Cara nodded, gaze set aside and full of bland sorrow. And with a look in her friend's area, one of sympathy, Maude stepped back out the door to walk around the corner and knock on the metal opening closest to her.

"Flo?" No answer.

"Flo, I'm going to come in." she turned the big valve in the middle of the door and it creaked open; the bed was made, and Flo's backpack was on the floor, though Flo herself was not in the room.

Weird.

She made the decision not to press the matter too far. Maude wandered back to Cara's room, trailing her hand lightly on the wall.

"Let's go find some clothes." They left together and started to walk down the other end of the dim lit hallway.

A couple soldiers came their way. "Hey! Excuse me!" Maude called as they passed by.

"Yes?" his tone was cold.

"Do you know where we can find some clothes?"

"The laundry room has a lost and found for the staff of the ship," he pointed behind him. "Left once, right twice, the third door."

"Thanks mate," Cara said. They walked through the hall, it was quiet save for the rumbling of the engine and the clatter of metal boots a long ways away. Maude found the door and held it open for her friend. They went over to the giant clothing container.

There were fabrics of red and black and gold. Here and there was a little brown. Maude picked out a dark red, smooth shirt with golden stitching. She pulled on some brown leggings and fastened a matching red and gold belt around her waist. She found some metal arm bands and red shoes that seemed to go with the rest of the outfit.

All in all, she felt fancy, as if she were going to a party or ball- and contemplated dropping some of the gold.

Whilst braiding her curly, bright red hair down her back she noticed Cara had gone for a mostly black outfit with her trusty leather combat boots and a belt. The only thing that wasn't black would have been the dark crimson pants she'd laced the belt through. She wished she could wear darker colors like Cara and Flo, it just made her sad, depressed, antisocial. Nobody could really tell why.

When they'd fixed the clothing problem, they went up to the deck in search of Florence. She had been up there, talking to Landon.

Cara sat in the far corner of the deck room, away from the captain, staring out as the ship moved across the water with a rather stubborn expression on her face. Maude went over to Flo.

"When will we be arriving?" she asked Landon. "Tomorrow, late evening." he supplied.

"I thought it took three days.." she stated with a questioning timbre.

"When Nico is angry he gets shit done," he replied softly, glancing to his friend a few meters to their right.

"Good to know." she walked to the front of the boat where Nico was looking grumpy. And then she walked a little away from there because he was ruining her good mood.

Florence

Snakes

She woke up really very early. First, she went to find some new clothes, a gold dress with a short end and a long end. After she pulled it on, she found coppery colored sleeves that came to match and wondered where they found all these clothes and how they ended up in a lost and found on a scary boat.

She found some brown laced shoes and pulled her long blond hair into a bun, a couple pieces framed her face. She felt somehow fresher with no make up, realizing that it sat at home in her bedroom.

She frowned. And then she walked up to the deck.

"I see you've found some replacement clothes," Landon pointed out. "Yeah, they're a little big."

"We can find you something else once we get back to the Fire Nation. Anyways, you.. Look nice."

"Thank you," she smiled coyly, attempting to cover her blush. What happened to all the guys like this in Toronto?

She looked over to where the captain was standing. He was by the wheel with some breakfast balancing hazardously on a knob of some sort. He still looked a mad and she made a note to avoid him.

"Where do you live?" she asked, trying to make a plain conversation come to life.

"In the middle of the main city, it's a manor with four wings, and a main building. There's the servant's wing, the guest wing, my wing and my father's wing." he explained with enthusiasm.

"It sounds lovely." Oh joy, a rich kid. Of course he was rich. She didn't know how she'd neglected it.

"It really is," Cara and Maude entered. Maude walked over to them to ask things then strolled over to the front of the deck.

She glanced out across the ocean. It was a clear day, blue skies and fluffy clouds, the only thing wrong would have been the looming Serpent's path to the left of the ship- CLANG. The sound rang throughout the ship.

"What was.." CRASH. The ship jerked to the side and everyone flew into the wall.

"Nico!"

"It wasn't me!" BANG. BANG. BANG.

"I was so hoping he'd leave us alone!" Nico moaned.

"Who?" Cara cried.

"Ever wonder why it's called the Serpent's Pass?" he said with a 'duh' expression.

"Because it looks like a...oh.."

"We're being attacked by the Serp-AAAHH" the boat tipped the other way, Florence dropped to the floor and felt herself sliding. She shut her eyes and heard a scream, realizing it was herself.

"We were so close to the exit, too!" Nico complained as he crawled his way back to the steering wheel. The swishing stopped and for just a second, they thought the unfathomable water snake had left. Flo was hating the suspense with every ounce of her.

WHAM.

The serpent had created a wave. A very, very, very big wave. It crashed into the ship, sending them sailing quite quickly over the water. The pressure caused everyone to fall once again onto the metal floor in agony. Cara seemed to have started her very own wave of curses. Flo ground her fists into the iron and clenched her eyes close even more so. The wave was slowing after minutes, and they were coming closer to normal water level. She opened her eyes as it came to a halt.

Landon clambered to his feet and offered her his hands. She took them gratefully and stumbled as she raised herself to her feet. He placed his hands on her shoulders to steady her, and then awkwardly nodded unsurely once she was okay. He walked over to Nico who leant against the dials and knobs on the wall as if he'd just won a marathon.

The captain was having his own fit of joy. There may have been actual tears of happiness in his vivid eyes. He muttered praise under his breath.

"What is it?" Landon wondered.

"The serpent's wave.. It pushed us miles closer to the Fire Nation! We'll be home right after dinner!"

"That's.. That's great."

"So if a water snake can do your job for you- why are you even here?" asked Cara.

"Kill joy," he spat. Flo could see his smile falter into a frown.

Florence sighed in relief. She'd never felt that close to death, ever. Feeling that adrenaline rush really had scared her out of her wits.

Desperately, she tried to focus on something else, she supposed with difficulty that it was nice they'd be there a day early.

Cara

Soup

"I'm really, really hungry. Is it wrong that I'm starving? Please give me food," Cara prodded at Landon.

"The mess hall is downstairs."

"Thanks," she nodded seriously as if it were an incredibly important matter.

"Does anyone want me to bring them something?" she wondered.

"I'd like a sandwich."

"Anyone not including satan over here."

"Hey!"

"Well- ..Fine."

Maude and Florence decided they'd share some soup. And so with a list, she moved casually out of the room and trampled down the stairs. After searching for a while she eventually came across the said mess hall.

There were a few soldiers dotted around, but it was mostly empty. She picked up a wooden bowl and filled it with hot vegetable soup, spilling some in the process.

She freaked out a little when it burned her hand and wished idly that it hadn't. When she looked for the drops of soup on the counter, there were none, almost as if she'd willed the soup back into the bowl.

Nah.

She grabbed a sandwich, honestly not caring what sort of stuff was in it and she picked out some spring role type things after thoroughly examining them for any meat, as she was and had been all her life, a vegetarian.

She poured herself some tea and balanced the food all the way back into the deck. She set the soup down on the long table next to Flo and dropped the sandwich on the controls next to Nico.

Cara didn't get so much as a thanks out of him after standing next to him for two minutes. So, she let out a dramatic, exasperated sigh and went to eat her spring roles.

Her tea had gone cold.

They explored the ship a bit and Cara found special interest in the engine room. Soon, it was evening and everyone was eagerly awaiting arrival.

Expertly- Nico eased the ship into the docks. There was an ostrich carriage waiting for them, and at one point Cara refused to get in. Landon, Flo and Maude said goodbye to Nico and they were off towards the fanciest part of the city, awfully close to the palace.

"Why is he a captain of a ship at such a young age?" Flo asked.

"When he was a kid, he spent a lot of time with his mother on the water. She taught him how to manage all sorts of boats." Landon stopped and scratched the back of his neck, wondering if he should have been telling them this.

"He got a little older, decided he wanted to be a captain. He studied really hard and took a really big test when he was thirteen. At first he failed, they suggested he become a professional fire bender for the navy, he had more then enough skill, then.. Then his mother died.

Cara sat upright and stared at him with shock lacing her gape.

"He was really distraught. But he sort of vowed to make her proud and become a ship's captain. So, he did the test again and passed. He made his way to the top, and now he has a steam liner at seventeen."

"Wow. That's amazing," Maude exclaimed. Cara remained silent. She knew that if she talked, she'd only agree. It was impressive. But he was a jerk, so why would she compliment him?

"Cara, are you okay?"

"I'm perfect," she snapped, and the twitch caused her to slam her hand into the door of the carriage.

"Jeeesus, I was only checking. You were in deep thought- and we wouldn't want you getting lost there if you're a stranger," Florence muttered.

Landon and Maude tried desperately to stifle laughter.


	6. Illegal-Post Crackling Fire-Whisper

Maude

Illegal

They arrived at the manor, and Fior Manor, was, indeed, very manor-y. At first, Maude imagined the parties and soirees help in the heat of summer social heights, when the gossip was strong and all the wives of politicians and army particulars has nothing to do but gather and celebrate actual interest through whispering dirt on their closest 'friends' and even closer 'enemies'.

The largest room, what must have been primely for dancing, with big windows and glass doors and long curtains and ornamental weapons clearly made for fighting more then artistic pleasure was Maude's favourite. Though she wasn't so keen on maroon everywhere (she got enough of the colour when brushing through her hair) she found herself drawn towards traditional chinese-esque suits of armour, golden tassels lining the impeccably embroidered tapestries on the walls and finally, the masks on the walls, no doubt all from sorts of religion or legend in the Fire Nation.

The Manor would sooner be a museum or gallery to the common public then the average home to a pair of recognized and accomplished (and very, very wealthy, it seemed) classy government types.

After eating dinner with the others, Maude found herself lost on the way to the toilets. She got lost trying to make her way to the kitchen and sitting room. She was lost almost immediately in attempt to travel in the grand clipped and sheered garden maze they kept behind the mansion.

She couldn't find anyone- only servants, and they wouldn't talk to her, it was almost as if their mouths were stapled closed, and she made note to talk to Landon on the topic after scaring the wits out of a young page boy when rounding a corner.

Maude walked into the dining room and slumped into a chair. She sighed desperately with wear, glancing around lamely.

"Maude! I- we were looking for you everywhere- where on earth were you?" Flo cried happily, clasping her hands.

"Trying to find you guys!" she snapped.

"Really? Good job, making it to that chair. I'm sure you put in loads of effort," Cara giggled, sauntering through the door.

"Have you two been exploring also?"

"Yeah, this building is gorgeous. Do you think they have any secret rooms? I think they have secret rooms," Flo whispered the last bit, eyes sparkling.

"I feel as though thats not the only reason you're so perky," Maude said analytically.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Flo crossed her arms and elegantly stood to her full height.

"Shall we look for secret rooms?" asked Maude dully, unimpressed by the blonde's pitiful avoidance.

"Oh yes, lets look for secret rooms!"

Maude stood up, leading the others into the next room. It was a hallway. There were three doors. She smirked at the idealess.

"Lovely, Maude check out this one, Flo go and have a look in that one there, and I'll go to the one in the corner," commanded Cara.

Maude stepped through the closest door. It was an office, she wondered exactly how many offices there were in the building, and if this was one of the offices used very often. It was very clean and proper, there were plenty of silk pinned badges and scrolls hanging on the walls.

Maude went around the room, pulling on the books in the wooden shelves and checking for false bottomed drawers in the oak desk like the average investigating detective with a sketchy past from a book she'd read would. It looked as though this office belonged to someone important which she deduced from award smothered walls. Though, this person wasn't around enough to call it homey. The place was much too bland.

She checked under the woven carpet for an unlikely trap door, and knocked on the walls for hollow spots. Exhaling in defeat, she sat herself down on the comfy arm chair behind the desk.

"Hey, did you find anything?" Flo wondered as herself and Cara entered the room several minutes later.

"No, nothing. How about you?" Maude asked, she brushed some hair out of her chalky grey eyes, trying pathetically to get it to cooperate and failing miserably. She let it pass as she always did.

"Nah." said Cara, leaning against the side of the desk.

"Nopem" echoed Florence, placing her hand as support on the flat of it.

"That's too bad, maybe we should go look somewhere else?" she wondered.

"Yeah- okay-" Florence's hand slipped from its spot on the end of the desk.

Click.

"What was-"

Crunch.

Creak.

Creak.

"Of all the places..." somebody began, Maude didn't care to see who as one of the book shelves had opened up into a door. And a torch lit tunnel had appeared. And this torch lit tunnel led downwards. Maude stood.

Mutely, the three walked over to the tunnel, glancing unsurely at each other and then, one after the other, entering. She wanted to laugh at the cult-y-ness but a gloomy feeling in her chest stopped her.

Maude felt as though she'd been walking for a solid ten minutes before she saw the shiny black iron door at the end of the stone hall. She tried to get it open, and with help from Flo they had the door wide enough for three fairly skinny teenage girls to squeeze through. The room was small, and full to the top with books and scrolls and loose parchment.

"Ugh," Flo shuddered. "I was claustrophobic enough in that hall, this room though..." her eyes darted from corner to corner briskly and fleetingly.

"If you want to wait outside..." Maude trailed off. She'd never seen so much new information in one area before. She wanted to start reading and not ever stop taking it in, all the cultural history she yearned to hear of, most likely sat before her, tucked into the nooks and crannies of already spilling moth eaten shelves.

"This is awesome- it's like the mystery books I've read... Underground hidden passage ways..." Cara seemed to be getting a kick out of it all and feeling like that was the 'go ahead' point of it all, Maude snatched up a scroll almost hungrily and unrolled it.

"Battle Plans from... One hundred years ago- when they were invading the Air Nomads."

"And check this out," Flo began, less worried about her fear of enclosed spaces at this point, "A list of Water Benders from the southern Water Tribe... Aria of the Water Tribe, Moko of the Water Tribe, Kya of the Water Tribe..."

"That one's more recent," exclaimed Maude, dropping her scroll and reaching for Flo's.

"Hey, this one was made in this Springtime. It's only a couple months old. It's about the Water Tribe." observed Cara. "Fire Nation, Government, Classified. It's a list of the illegal water bending moves and the people that have attempted them."

"There are illegal bending moves?" wondered Maude. "It says illegal here, but maybe they're only made illegal because they were so threatening to the Fire Nation that any use of them would be legitimately harming. God, they were only trying to gain an upper hand in such small areas, thats.. that's pitiful, when they were winning the war anyways." Cara snorted in disgust.

"Is there anything else?"

Cara unrolled the scroll a little more. "No-"

"Hey wait." a piece of parchment that had been rolled up in the scroll Cara held fluttered down to the floor.

Maude picked it up and recited; "plan no. 173. Automaton no. 43. Polar Bear Hound." On the paper was a sketched diagram of what looked like the combination of labrador and polar bear.

"That's beautiful."

"It's torn."

"What?"

"The parchment was torn out of a book, look at the edges. I think it was a journal of someone- Harou Sheng, it's signed, and it has a page number at the bottom. Page 42," Maude said.

They appeased to looking around the room for a while for the paper's source, and to no avail. The journal wasn't in the secret expanse, and there was a big chance it wasn't in the manor either, if the Fiors made a habit out of storing all of their close information down a tunnel deep beneath the ground.

They walked back through said tunnel and into It was dark out and the decision was made to go straight to sleep. Maude tucked the parchment safely into her pocket.

Florence

Post Crackling Fire

They walked through the halls, unready to split up until they were sure they were close to the guest wing. It was incredibly eerie.

"Oh! I'm so sorry Flo," she wasn't sure if he was blushing, because it was dark, but she thought she could bet on that. Florence recomposed herself quickly after bumping into him.

"It's fine, Landon," she smiled. "Hey, we were wondering if we could ask you some things," she pressed as she now had his attention.

"Absolutely, he grinned at her, almost uncharacteristically.

"Was your father in the raid a few months ago?"

"The one against the Northern Water Tribe. Yeah." he seemed a little dejected, his gaze averted to the floor.

"Okay. Do you know if he made any detours during the invasion- to see a.. Harou Sheng? Have you heard of Harou Sheng?"

"Harou Sheng is dead. He was killed in the invasion, apparently he was a casualty- someone fighting. I found it sort of weird, he was ninety two and a non-bender. Not the optimum fighter- but then, the Fire Nation did render them helpless" he practically spat the last part.

"Odd..." she muttered, her mind pulling together a web of bits and pieces that could have to do with that.

"Are polar bear hounds found in the Water Tribe?"

"You mean polar bear dogs? Yeah, they're pretty savage though, no one can conquer a polar bear dog. It hasn't been done for hundreds of years. Why do you even want to-"

"One more question. Do you know where we can learn more- like a library with records of Harou Sheng or the Water Tribe beasts?"

"Well, there's the main library of the northern Water Tribe City. But the Fire Nation is being really strict with them, from what I hear. My father is actually there right now. It's no wonder Harou Sheng was murdered with _him_ there..."

"Do you.. Not get along to well with your dad?" she asked tentatively, reaching for his hand.

"Uh. Not really..."

"We'll I'm going to bed. Sleep well, all." Cara left the hallway in realization that she was not needed.

"Good night Florence, Landon." Maude had gone too, leaving with her friend, though before she left, she gave Flo a meaningful look- one that pretty much expressed the need to talk later- superbly.

"Landon, we want to go to the northern Water Tribe to find out more about Harou Sheng."

He looked very thoughtful for a minute. "You cant go alone. The Fire Nation wont let you into the city without a Commander's company. I have to go with you," she secretly hoped that he didn't only want to go for that, but she was still really pleased he wanted to go with them at all.

"Thank you, so much." She risked a hug, and wrapped her arms around his waist. He smelled like honey and post crackling fire. He was pretty awkward about it, but that only made her more inclined to bury her face into his shoulder. Awkward people just made her want to squeal from cuteness. Often times she'd been told this could be an issue.

"G'night." she smiled at him one last time and turned down the hallway to her new bedroom. Once she'd made it to her soft mattress she took her long hair down from it's bun and brushed it out. She sighed contently at how Landon had been so helpful to them, she didn't think people like him existed in the world. Then again, this wasn't _their_ world.

No. She wasn't going to think about mom and dad. Florence tumbled sideways onto her bed, drifting into a dreamful sleep after she hit the silken sheets.

Cara

Whisper

"Cara! Get up," cough. Cough. Cough.

"CARA!"

"Wh-wh-?" she rubbed her eyes. It was sort of all a blur. Her white hair mixed with the smoke, making it seem much more silver then it usually was.

There was a lot of smoke, for sure, then a lot of fire.

"Ugh. I thought they knew how to control this stuff!" she exclaimed crawling out of her bed and swinging her backpack around her shoulder.

"Where's Maude?" she asked.

"I think she got out. I-I can't find her!" Florence coughed again.

"We have to go!" Cara cried, choking on her words, then clutching her friends thin wrist and pulling her out of the half burning room.

"Do you know how it started?" she asked, straining for her voice to be heard over the crashing noises. Before Flo could answer she shouted "down here!" they swivelled around a corner and down two flights of stairs to the main floor and out of the guest wing.

"I have no idea! It cant have been Landon! Maybe a servant?! Or maybe it was completely accident-AAGH!"

"Flo! Are you okay!?"

"Ughh... My leg..." Cara pulled Florence out from under the panel, linking their arms to do so and shutting her eyes to keep the smoke from stinging them.

"C'mon.." she eased her arm around her shoulder and headed for another exit. The front was blocked by flames. She leaned Flo up against the wall as she struggled with the knob to the main back door.

It was locked. Of course.

"UGH! I _HATE _FIRE." she exclaimed and then she kicked at the door knob with all the will she had left. It eased open slowly. "You're kidding me," she sobbed.

She pulled Flo, who had been mostly knocked out, and seemed to be muttering indistinct crazy talk out the door and into the garden.

"Wake up, Flo. You need to walk now!" Flo shook herself out of her dreams and murmured pain as she shuffled along behind Cara. They made it far from the burning house, and around to the cobblestone streets.

"I guess they don't get uncontrollable fires around here too often," she noted sarcastically, attempting in weakness to calm herself from the wracking and panicking sobs.

She figured there would be someone here to put it out, but it just kept burning. The flames got higher and higher.

"We should find Maude -and-and Landon," she decided. Flo had completely passed out.

"Are you alright, Cara, Flo?!" Landon ran over to them, about twenty to fifty servants trailed behind him in distress.

"She hurt her ankle. Leg. I don't know. Where's Maude?"

"She's..She's not with you?" he asked as he supported Florence's head in his hands and looked up to Cara in shock.

"Maude." she whispered it. "MAUDE!" she cried, how could she have assumed that Maude would have even woken up? She dropped a frail Flo's hand into Landon's and turning back to the burning manor. She ran towards it, and at first thought to break in the front door.

Soon, the fire reached her hands and burned the tips painfully. She screamed. Not for the physical pain, but for the mental. "I hate..fire.." she uttered, quietly this time. "Maude..."

"C'mon, get out of there Maude! Where are you.." she limped away from the fire and slumped to the ground, cradling her hands in pain.

"I need... I need... Water," she murmured. "Landon!" her voice was uneven.

"I need water- my hands..hurt!" he nodded at her hurriedly. "And.. And I need Maude," she whispered it to herself like a prayer.

She'd never much believed in anything, now, for a second- Cara believed in every single spirit there was in that world, hoping somehow that believing could help.


	7. Marshmallow-Her Fault-Crash

Maude

Marshmallow

She woke up for a minute, and there was lots of smoke and fire and it was bright. She went back to sleep. It was only a dream. The logical thing.

"Hey. Get up. A-Are you okay?"

"Huh..ugh.." she coughed.

"Are you all right?"

"Uhh.. Oh. Where- where ah we?"

"In a bad situation."

"Oh. You..you shu-ud take cay-uh o' thay't." She went back to sleep again.

"Wake up. I'm serious. If you go to sleep you might sleep forever." She opened her eyes.

"Wow. Y'ar ray'ly priday." she coughed again.

"Hey, you're not so bad yourself. But you've got a hell lot of hair, it's sort of difficult to see your face," He picked her up. "

"Weee. Y'ar ray'ly strow-ung too! Tha's nice."

"You act this much younger then your age often? And what's wrong with your voice?" he snorted as he dodged the flames.

"I thaynk th' smoke is makin' me say thangs that ah wrowng answuhs n' also- my friend told me that I sound'd Texan when ah am drunk or ti-yud. Er- er- ti-yud and drunk. I don't normally git the wrowng answuhs on tests..." He brought her down some stairs and almost stumbled, then caught himself on the banister.

"Marvelow."

"Whut?"

"My name is Marvelow, since you asked so politely."

"Ah'm Flarenss. Na, ah'm Carah. Na, ac-chully, Ah'm sure thayt ma nayme is Mawde."

"Nice to meet you, Florence, Cara, Maude."

"Nice tuh meet you too Marshmallow!"

He snorted again.

"C'n we b' friends?" she asked when he didn't continue.

"I don't know. I'm trying to make up my mind about you, whether we'll like each other or hate each other- but then you aren't thinking straight, huh."

"Naw, I'm nawt, am ah?" he smirked at her.

"Ohmigosh, yah ray'ly ah priday. Yah face is cohmpleetelay symmetrically kerrekt and yah eyahs ah align-ned in uh purfect ay-ngle, nat ta menshun they'a gorgeous colorin', yah ears ain't big and yah hay-uh is ray'ly nice- I think yah shud git it cut by another hay-uh dressuh next tam thow," she marveled.

"Huh. Maybe I should just leave you to get high on the smoke.. I don't get stuff like this too often," he laughed.

"Yeah, maybay. Wha nawt? Ah'v ney-vah seen anywun so mathematicallay kerrekt- yah just so priday!"

"Do you usually talk this much?" he wrinkled his nose.

"Duuhh.." she tried to form a sentence in her head.

"I think thay't maybay I like talkin'. But nawt like Carah likes talkin'. And nawt like th' radio likes talkin'."

"What's a radio?" he asked. She giggled for three full minutes.

"Yuh dun know whut a radio is?" she clarified.

"Is that a bad thing?" his feelings didn't seem hurt at all.

"Its uh bow-x that sow-nd comes out 'a. Lowts n' lowts a' peepl have' em."

"I guess it makes sense I wouldn't know about home appliances," he grumbled.

"Yuh dun hay've uh sleepin' place? Ah luhv sleep."

"No. I have a camp."

"A circus cayump? Thayut's fantayuh-stic! Is theyuh uh tatrope?"

"What?"

"Marshmallow?" it was quiet for a bit.

"Yes Florence, Cara, Maude?"

"Can we b' friends, n' can ah go bay-ck tuh sleep?" They'd made it safely out of the burning house.

"Maybe, and I think I can allow it."

"Thayunks." She turned a little in his arms and wrapped her own around his neck, nuzzling her head into it. "Yuh warm... Ah yuh'uh fiyah benda?"

"Yeah." he mumbled.

"Thas ray'ly priday. Ah meyun nice. I..I thiyunk that ah.." She slept for what felt like minutes alone. When Maude woke up, she decided she didn't like sleep nearly as much as she'd initially believed.

Part II

Just Go With It, Honey

"_Rainy Day Women"_

Watching Ice Thin

Florence, Cara, Maude

Florence

Her Fault

"Cara?" she groaned.

"Oh spirits! My ankle," though she thought this loudly, her voice was harsh and weakened as she shot up and reached for her leg. Her hair flew around her in every direction, like a bird's nest -particularly a sparrow's. Or perhaps a robin's she later spectacled.

"Cara?" she wondered again, a little louder, a little stronger. She didn't remember falling asleep in this room, and she could feel memories slowly returning, hazy and uncomfortably seering memories.

"Ugh." her friend moaned next to her.

"Oh, Cara. Are you alright?"

"What sort of friend would I be talking about myself when you're in such a state, are _you_ alright?" she seemed legitimately concerned. "How is your ankle feeling? It's fractured, the healer just told us-" she checked her watch, "four... Hours.. Ago." her eyes were sort of blood shot and blotchy.

"Cara, I'm fine. I'm also serious. Are you okay?"

"I'm.. I'm not okay. It's.." she began steadily and her voice became uneven and cracked.

Landon ducked his head into the room and his face lit up with concern. "Florence!" he strode to the side of the bed. "I'm.. I'm really pleased you're awake.." his eyes drifted from her ankle up to meet hers.

"I'm sorry I wasn't here when you woke up I just had to talk to the healer and your ankle is fractured it will take a while to heal and-"

"-Landon. Thank you for being here. Really," she smiled at him and he hugged her and there was that honey and post burning fire right there again. She felt safer then ever before.

Then it shattered in an instant.

Because those memories were all back now.

"Where's Maude?" Landon froze up and slowly pulled away from her.

"You don't remember?" he asked slowly.

Cara stood, her wooden chair scraped against the marble floor, and she walked to the door, pausing at Flo's plea.

"Cara wait! Landon. Where. Is. M-Maude?"

"We... She.. She didn't make it out of the fire."

"Whe-ere's Ma-aude." she choked, bringing her frail porcelain hands to cup her face.

"They didn't find her body, she could still be-"

"Maude. Where is she?" Flo's eyes began to heat, and she didn't care if her skin was flushed or if she looked awful. Her cheeks welcomed hot streaking tears that she tried to prevent, clamping her eyes shut and her hand over her mouth to soften sobs.

"We-e have t-to find he-er. Ma-aude. We've g-got to-o."

"How, Flo?" Cara snapped, her voice sharp and coarse.

"How can we find her? She's..she probably burned to the ground with the rest of that ridiculous building!" and through blurry vision Florence could see dried remenants of weeping upon her familiar's face.

"This is all your fault! You found that stupid valve and now we're here!"

"Why did you have to turn the damn thing?! This is no more my fault then it is yours!" Flo cried.

Cara's gaze turned steely. "You're right! It was me! I should have been able to get back into the house- and- and-"

"No- thats not what I-"

"Shut up Florence! That's exactly what you meant! I-I've had enough!" she threw her hands up in defeat and whirled on her heel, storming out of the room.

"It's not my fault.." she said in a hushed voice. "Landon..." and she grasped for the air like a child in search of a sentimentally valued stuffed animal.

"It's okay," he reached for her and pulled her into an embrace. "I'm sorry," he sighed softly. "I'm not good in arguments, I'm bad at picking a side."

"It's not. Not my fault," like a broken record, she continued.

"No, it isn't." he agreed with her morbidly, centering his attention in gently twisting a lock of her long flaxen hair. She sighed into his coat.

After a few minutes, she'd mumbled a thank you, and he'd left, and she was unnaturally cold. She tried to snuggle down into her sheets once Landon had gone but a razor pain shot through her leg one she'd swayed for a moment and so Florence gave up the idea.

Landon went to take care of papers and Florence sat numbed in her mind, staring at the plain walls and shivering in the streams of fairy yellow sunlight. She tried to remember coping with major death before but she couldn't think of anyone she'd loved to such a degree ever coming so close to death as actually dying. She had nothing to compare this to, no Cara to consult, not a single idea of how to deal with it.

Wasn't there some 'stages of grief' bullshit she'd heard about from the school guidance counceller at one point? Denial, right? Well she'd gone through that first. Flo was sure she'd barely denied it for a second. Check. Anger. Check. Bargaining. What? She'd come back to that. Depression. Currently withstanding. Acceptance.

Flo cringed, lowered her head and watched as salty drops hit the sheets. She must have been going through depression at this moment, because when she tried (oh so desperately) to find something happy deep down, she drew nothing up out of billions of shards and clippings.

A couple times Landon came back to see her, he brought her food and he read to her from some books, she couldn't pay attention when at the same time she scanned her wits for any understanding on making it past 'Depression'. He helped her brush her hair back splaying it across her shoulderblades and saying how nice it was.

Each reply seemed emptier then the last.

Cara

Crash

She sat in the waiting room of the healing institute. Everything was gold and red and black, like most of the decor in the Fire Nation. There was a large framed painting of a scary looking man. She noted he was dressed pretty fancily, and he gave a glare maybe half as good as her own. 'Fire Lord Ozai,' she read. She decided not to look in the painting's direction as it put off her mood to such an extent you'd think she'd been to hell and back.

Cara looked up, surprised when Nico crashed through the door onto the floor.

"What's the view like down there? I've never thought to try that sort of outlook," she snorted at him. He remained serious, looking at her with an undepictable expression. "If you find it hard to laugh at yourself, I can do it for you," she tried to laugh, but it came out as a sort of dry, strangled cough.

"I just had a bit of a disagreement with the doorman. Where's Landon?" he asked her calmly.

"He's with _Flo_, I'll take you..." she sighed, standing and brushing off her pants.

"Had an argument? You're plenty good at that, you know," he asked her. "Of sorts. Thanks, so much, exactly what I need when my best friend has just died in a fire." They were quiet for a few seconds.

"Hey, I'm sorry. About your friend. And about saying that. I didn't know her-"

"-But I did. Too much for this to be fair in any way. End of conversation." dishearted, she cut him off callously.

He nodded straight ahead, like he was relieved. This _was_ the longest they'd gone without yelling.

"In this one," she directed him to a curtain.

"You aren't coming in," he wondered unsurely.

"No. We might blow it up, being in the same room for so long," she said indignantly.

"Good point, it probably isn't good for our health at all."

"Well. Bye."

"Yeah." she turned back to begin a slow walk to the waiting room. Cara stood and walked out the front door, suddenly covered in a thin sweat and craving a breeze. She found herself in a garden, the plants were mostly red leaved or bare branched, and there was barely anything green. She missed her mum's vegetable garden.

Cara strolled through the winding paths, back to the door- somebody flew out of them comically and into her, toppling her down.

"Ugh. Oh my god, it's you again! Didn't waste your time, did you?" she moaned.

"What's the view like from down there?" he smirked, relishing in the use of _her_ previous remark.

"Get off, get off, get off!" she punched him in the chest. "Ow.." she squeaked, pulling back her hand.

"What?" he asked as he scrambled off of her.

"I burned my hands last night."

"Did you get the healer to look at it?"

"Yeah, she said I needed to visit the water benders in the prison. She said they'd use water to heal my fingertips."

"Aren't you going to go?" he asked her slowly.

"No! Absolutely not! How can they keep people like that, expecting them to service them with their marvelous healing skills without anything in return!" she exclaimed hostilely.

"I agree. Well. Sorry, again, for falling on you, I guess," he muttered.

"Weird," she added.

"What?"

"We agree." the took a moment to contemplate this.

"Who'd you piss off this time?" she broke the silence.

"Some healer in training, much stronger than he looked." and with that, he'd gone. She stood up unevenly.

CRASH. "Come _on_!"

"Oh, god, I'm so sorry!"

"Wow. How old are you? Are your parents with you?" Cara helped the little girl up, it took her a moment to realize the gender, the kid's ashy brown hair was cut short. It stuck out in places, here eyes were a spectrum of green and blue and brown.

The sort of person who'd go from pretty to splendidly beautiful.

Maude was going from splendidly beautiful to magnificent.

"Thirteen. I don't.. uh.. no. They're not here."

"Good lord, they're brutal in the Fire Nation," Cara muttered.

"Tell me about it," the girl sighed.

"What's your name? Why'd you get kicked out of the institute?" Cara demanded.

"I'm Artende. Call me Art. I wanted some medicine," she exhaled sadly.

"Why didn't they give you any?"

"I don't have any money. Someone at my camp needs it, she's coughing loads and everything we try wont get her any better," Art grumbled.

"Come with me," Cara took Art's hand and led her back into the healing institute.

"What do you need?"

"Essence of.. Pig rat and Bo Fruit leaves, yeah, that's what he said," Art listed, peeking over the fancy desk. Cara asked the healer in the pharmacy for those, paying him with some money Landon had given her.

"You really ought to open your heart to everyone you can- you wont make any friends if you don't," she sniffed at the man, then handed the medicine to Art.

"Thank you- I cant even begin to-"

"No worries," she smiled a rare, genuine smile.

Art jumped, as if she'd just remembered something important. "What's your name?"

"Cara."

"Why did you help me Cara?" Art asked as though she'd recited this before.

"You remind me of.. Someone I haven't seen in a while. I have two twin sisters, they're around your age."

"Oh. I hope you see them again, Cara." she smiled and clutched the paper brown bag of herbs closer.

Cara winked.

Then she decide after a long and hard think about friendship and sisterhood and shit like that, holding grudges was for losers, and went to talk to Florence.


	8. Smoke Bending-Heal-Made Decision

Maude

Smoke Bending

"Florence, Cara, Maude, you're up- finally," the 'finally' seemed to be added upon decision of attitude.

"What time is it?" she turned on her side and curled up, let out a faint wail, then coughed and fell back down onto her pillow after trying so _damn_ hard to get up.

"Late afternoon, you've been through a lot, huh?"

"Who are you?" she groaned. "I don't know you." She looked around a little bit, as much as her eyes would let her without stinging. "Why am I in a giant tent?"

"I'm Leelo, and I'll be your healer for today," he sniggered.

"Leelo. Where's Flo and Cara?"

"I guess you're just Maude then, Marv told us different."

"Marv. Who's Marv?"

"So you don't remember meeting him? You were moaning about him all night…"

"MARSHMALLOW!" she jutted up, her hair frizzing ecstatically around her. "Ohhh spirits! He heard my Texan voice!" she cried, and then in as stuttering whisper; "My..Texan.. voice."

"Calm down Maude, you're delusional," Leelo reasoned.

"No, no I'm not. Where's Marshmallow- did I call him pretty? Oh good god I did, can you go and get him I need to-"

"Shh, Marv is going to come instead, is that okay? Marshmallow couldn't make it-"

"-Yes he could." She turned desperately to see the source of the untroubled tone. Marvelow strode into the area, "How are you, Florence, Cara, Maude?"

"It's just-" cough, cough, cough, "Maude. It's just Maude." then she muttered to herself, "Marshmallow is Marv. Right."

"I don't know how I am," she looked at Leelo for help.

"There's a lot of smoke in her lungs, we need to get her some medicine to fog the pain, but... I'm pretty sure the only way to-"

"Leelo, over here." Marvelow signalled the healer away from Maude, so she wouldn't hear their exchanging. Maude was a little hurt, but found herself focusing more so on the burning in her chest. A coughing spree took heed and she pressed a cool hand under her shirt to her diaphragm, seeking an ounce of comfort.

Leelo cut short their conversation, he rushed to check on her. "She should be back with the drugs by now," he muttered to himself.

"Leelo, oh, Marv- I haven't seen you in a while," a little girl rushed in, a determined look set on her freckled face. "I got the stuff- there was this cool girl there that bought them for me- she actually backed me up and everything.."

"What was her name, Art?" Marvelow wondered. "We need more people like that in the resistance."

"Cyra or something, Cara maybe. She-"

"What?" Maude asked.

"Her name was Cara, I'm glad you've woken up-"

"What did she look like?"

"Average height, thin, green eyes, and very white hair like the Water Tribe Princess, Yue. Come to think of it she was kinda short," Art described.

"I have to go tell her I'm alive- Florence, too!" she swung her feet over the side of the bed, tried to stand on the ground, and drooped like a wilting flower, falling to the floor. Marvelow was as her side incredibly fast, easing her back onto the cot.

"You know them?" he asked once she was secure on the bed.

"They're my friends, I came here with them-"

"You cant leave yet, you're really sick. Worse then you feel. If the smoke makes it further into your system you'll die… Listen, there's one way I can ensure you'll be just as healthy as you were yesterday."

"What is it?" "Someone has to.. Bend the smoke out of your lungs."

"Can a fire bender even do that?"

"It's only for very strict purposes, and it helps if they've done it before. The smoke is generated from fire, so they have a connection that allows it to be bent, just not with force."

"Have you? Have you done it before?" "That doesn't matter, we can get-"

"Have you?"

"Yes," he admitted, his voice dwindling.

"Can _you_.. Bend the smoke from my lungs?"

"I don't think I should, it's been a while-"

"C'mon, you've heard my.. Texan voice.. we're practically related at this point."

He smirked. "Okay."

"Thanks… Marshmallow," she added for another smile. "You're welcome," he paused. "Right, Maude. You need to relax, breath evenly, and when I start, do not hold your breath at all. Just keep a steady rhythm."

"Sure, I can do that." she focused on exhaling then inhaling. She repeated the process, how many times, she wasn't sure. Marvelow raised his hands flat over her neck, where her esophagus was. He ground them into fists and closed his eyes, Maude almost stopped her breathing pattern to gaze at him as he concentrated. A minute went by. Maude jerked up for the third time that day from the bed and coughed once, rather loudly.

A large string of grey smoke burst from her throat, Marvelow put one hand on her back, and the other on her far shoulder, as to turn her to face him. He examined her face for thirty seconds by which time the smoke had disappeared into the air.

"That was only the beginning," he sighed, and his voice quietened as she drifted out of consciousness.

Florence

Heal

"You have a choice to go to the prison and have a Water Bender heal your ankle fully or to let it heal naturally." Landon explained.

"Don't- don't do it. Don't go to a prison," Cara ordered.

"I wasn't ever considering a yes," she agreed heartily and still Cara replied with a blank, stony visage.

"I'd rather it heal naturally, and to ask them to do that..." her eyes filled with sorrow.

"I feel sort of gross, can I have a bath or a shower?"

She didn't really feel dirty. Florence was truly only in wanting for distraction. She needed to make it to 'acceptance' and she could only do that by finding the things that made her happy all over again. Then again, perhaps baths were one of those things.

"There's a bathing room down at the very end of the hall," said Landon.

"I'll take you," Cara straightened up from where she was leaning and handed Flo her bamboo crutches. Landon helped her ease up towards them and soon she was moving out the room and down the hall, with aching legs and arms.

Cara walked slowly beside her. "Can I see your hands?" Florence asked.

"They told me you burned them- trying to get back into the manor..."

"Oh. Yeah, sure." Cara unravelled the white material around her fingers, displaying them once they reached the door to the bathing room. There were reddish burgundy streaks that kinda wrinkled the flesh across her hands. All her fingertips were completely blemished by the marring.

"They said I could go to a prison for a healer too. I'd rather live with the scars."

"Oh.." Flo's eyes trailed over the burns. "I never want to be burned," she decided.

"You're lucky."

"Cara- I'm.. uh.. sorry. For yelling at you."

"Me too. I'm sorry also."

"I think we're not acting ourselves.. its that.."

Cara glanced at her with weak agreement in her look. "C'mon." and she opened the door for her. Inside was a round tub, about as wide and long as a car. There were taps of different purpose dotted around the side. One said 'main water'.

It looked like something out of Harry Potter. Maude would have said that. No. Think of happy things.

Cara turned the main water tap one way and a jet of steamy clear liquid began to steadily stream from it. Minutes passed, Cara had left and Florence found herself soaking the high frothy white bubbles. She reached down to her fragile ankle and tried with little effort to massage it, make it a little less difficult to deal with.

She'd do anything to get rid of that pain. Her stomach churned at the times when it pricked like a bite -every so often. She closed her eyes and ran her hand soothingly over her ankle once more.

She gasped in surprise and looked down to her foot below the bubbles. A glowing blue mass surrounded it and the severity of the soreness lessened. She squeaked- shocked- and pulled her hand back out of the water. Slowly but surely, the pain returned to her ankle.

Not quite sure what to do for a moment, the young woman's hands shot frantically about all around her, searching for something to grasp, a towel met her palms. She hoisted herself out from the tub and dried off quickly, pulling on an unwrinkled robe covered in elaborate embroidery telling the story of a free dragon. When she stood she needed no crutches and walked with a slight limp to the door, opening it a crack.

"Cara.." she hissed. "Cara!" louder and sterner. "CARA. Cara. Caaaaraaa."

"What? Are you okay?" Cara became revealed from a red curtain to the left.

"I.. I've got to show you something," she muttered."

The other, arms dropped awkwardly at her sides stared slightly dumbfound. "Can I come in?" she asked.

"YES! COME IN."

And she entered.

"Look, look!"

"What? I'm moderately confused Florence. Do you think you should go back to bed? I think you should go back to-"

"Come over to the water. Take off your bandages!" she exclaimed.

"Why-"

"Just do it!"

"Calm down, I'm doing it." Cara pulled off the white fabric carefully, setting the strips on a small timber table.

"Give me your hands."

"Okay," Cara no longer questioned her methods. She placed her hands delicately in Flo's. They sat awkwardly by the warm tub as Flo put all her concentration into it.

Water, at no fast velocity- and carefully- crawled up around Flo's fingers to consume Cara's. She tried harder, picturing the most relief and comfort she could, found in her favourite smells and textures… people and places. It turned blue. At an elongated pace, Flo healed Cara's hands as best she could in complete silence. She eventually lost the flare to it and the water splashed back onto the tiled floor dully.

"Flo."

"Yeah," her voice was rather shaky.

"You can," Cara considered her words, "uh.." she frowned, "water bend."

"Er, yes."

"Well. Good for you, I suppose. I- I'll tell Landon."

"You, er, do that. Thanks."

Suddenly, as unexpectedly as it had began, it was over. Cara was gone.

Cara

Made Decision

"She- she can bend?" Landon asked incredulously.

"Yeah." was all she replied, in a duh tone.

"Fire? Or..?"

"Water. You don't heal a fire injury with more fire, idiot," Cara huffed, almost tired. She sighed. "Why was that asshole here, anyways?"

"Oh, Nico, you mean? He.. Was just checking up on me."

"Liar."

"What? How do you know?"

"I just do. It's because I've lied in everyday possible, I can tell when anyone else is doing it. What was he really here for?"

Landon looked away ashamedly. "He was here to talk to me about my father's recent decisions in the northern Water Tribe."

"What did he ask?"

"He thinks we need to go and talk to him- try to reason. It's getting pretty out of hand."

"Oh."

"Cara, you know, if Flo's a bender, maybe you're an Earth or Fire Bender. You could tell when I was.. Not telling the truth right then, and, no offence, but you have the attitude for it," he said.

"I doubt it. And anyways, I explained the lying thing, past experience." she shrugged and stood up to stretch. Cara walked to the door.

"He also asked about you."

"What?" she seemed foreign to the sentence.

"He wanted to know if you were okay, after being burned, and, well, your friend."

Cara's brow furrowed. "Very funny Landon." she left, checking her watch for the time. Almost evening.

Landon's dad was cooking up conundrum, was he? Maybe.. If they were going to the Water Tribe... She tripped into her friend, apologizing lamely. "You're walking." she stated the obvious.

"Yeah, I tried to heal my leg a little more. I guess it's working," she didn't seem as happy as she usually was, nor as she should have been at her knew skill.

"I was thinking, Flo-"

"That's an improvement," Flo joked, trying to lighten the mood. At least she hadn't completely lost it.

"Oh hush, I think that we should go to the northern Water Tribe. We can go with Landon and that other guy.. the rude one. They were tossing the idea around- Landon's dad is being a moron so they need to check up on him. Your new.. Skill," she muttered as a healer walked by, "is only preventing you from proper safety in the Fire Nation anyways. They _are_ the ones keeping your kind in prisons. And, well, we can learn more on Harou Sheng. We can figure out this automaton thing. Maude.. Would want us to figure it out. She'd hate to forget about information with such mystery and promise, right?"

"Yeah. Okay. I guess you're right, maybe I can get this whole water bending thing down whilst we're there," she added.

"Totally," Cara enthused.

"Let's tell Landon."

"Yeah, okay." They walked back the way Cara had came and into Flo's room. Cara made the proposal, quite convincingly, she felt, as Landon agreed to it, if not a bit hesitantly. After coming to grips with things and planning out the journey briefly, Cara rudely excused herself. She felt like she ought to be excited for their new quest (of sorts), though the fact that Nico would be accompanying them throughout was a bit of a negative.

Then... Then there was Maude. Why did she have to turn the damn valve. Curiosity killed the cat- or at least it should have. Not the cat's best friend. Cara strolled down the hall, her head down, choppy, messy white hair fell around her face, some braids came loose. She sighed dramatically. Her friend was dead because of her. Because of _her_. Could Cara kill some one? Of course she'd had no intent whatsoever, but... Would she be able to if she had to?

Cara… Cara didn't know if she had the heart- or rather- the lack of heart.

She exhaled. They would be leaving first thing in the morning. Freak-o would- she snorted. Did she really just come up with Freak-o for Nico? Best not tell him, she decided. Well, anyways, he'd take them there with his own unfairly lovely ship- approximately a day and a half journey, they'd stay with Landon's dad (sounded creepy as fuck to Cara) and Landon and apparently- because of reasons unknown but not completely- they'd have all access to libraries and record buildings. It should work out.

Cara wanted more than anything in that moment to cry.

Maude would have loved an adventure like this- maybe not at first- but that was what Cara was for- to encourage her. And to murder her, it seemed, she though bitterly. How could she be passing up the death of.. of Maude- so quickly? Maude she'd known for almost six years. Maude she'd gotten in trouble with. Maude she'd embarrassed herself with. Maude she'd shared way too much in common with.

Maude she'd left in a burning house.


	9. Busy-Time Telling-Chandelier

Maude

Busy

She coughed smoke. "That's the last of it," she confirmed.

Marvelow smirked. "You've said that four times."

"I'm absolutely positive this time, I promise," she expressed pointedly.

"Are you always this sure? This confident in your answer?"

She thought a bit, "...Always."

"No, you're not. You just proved yourself wrong by mulling it over right then, you, Maude, weren't confident in it, so you had to think it over first."

She didn't say anything for a minute, processing his words. "Fine!" she exclaimed, rather taken aback, "not _always_, but most of the time," she insisted. "Marshmallow," she added to the end for good measure.

"Are you never going to stop calling me that?" he wondered easily.

"You haven't asked me to, if I weren't me, I'd think you've come attached to it Marsh," she laughed. "Anyways-" she paused and choked back another cough ungracefully, swallowing it as to prove herself correct, "Anyways," she resumed, "what do you do here?" she wondered, gesturing around her to the large stocked medicine cabinet and the numerous cots.

"Oh. This is only the hospital tent, Leelo lives here for most of the day. You should take you herbs and then I'll show you around," he suggested.

"It tastes awful! Normally, I'm all for tea... lovely stuff, that, but this tastes like rabbit droppings- not that I know what-"

"Oh give me a break- when did you turn five years old? It's not that bad. Just tip it back into your head. Like this." he picked up a plain china cup with ordinary, herb-less hot water contained and downed it, throwing his head back, she observed his choppy, almost grey hair in movement.

"Your hair really is terribly cut," she commented before she repeated his action with her tea. She set the china on the table loudly and grimaced. "Ew." she spluttered.

After recovering somewhat, Maude made motion to the door, and Marvelow helped her up out of the cot unsurely. "Spirits, I'm fine. There, didn't hesitate. I'm perfectly confident," she reasoned.

He considered this, then let his arms fall to his sides and lead her out of the large tent. It was a sort of tunnel, almost a blanket fort, which made Maude giggle into nothing, earning a well deserved questioning glance from Marvelow.

He directed her into another big tent. There were tables filled with papers, maps and scribbles. There was a cloth wall covered in string and tacked ink drawings. Several teenagers dotted around the room were moving aimlessly from station to station, almost glaring rather intently at the maps and strings and whatnot.

"They all look rather busy," she said after a while.

"Yes. Well, they are. Next room then?"

"Alright." Though she trailed to glance at a few papers when they left. He showed her a tent filled with more cots, though these had mismatched quilts and trinkets dotted around. They were the sleeping quarters.

He showed her the armoury, stocked with knives, swords, armour of all sorts. He showed her an outside to it all, dirt and trees, space where people trained, and a separate tent for the kitchens and dining area.

"What's that one over there?" she pointed straight ahead. It was a small tent, fit for a person or two to live comfortably in.

"That's my tent."

"Oh! Are you really that special, Marshmallow?" she teased. He began to walk over, she followed hastily. He lifted the flap and ducked inside. When Maude stuck her head in, she was surprised to say the least. There was a cot with a plain maroon blanket, a small desk cluttered with papers, a couple empty backpacks in the corner and a single picture frame.

Maude picked it up. "It's you and Art." she stated it obviously. Marvelow looked a couple years younger, so did Artende. They were smiling happily. Marvelow looked almost... Naive. She wondered what had changed him from that innocent young kid to this determined and intelligent teenager.

"Why is it you and Art?" she asked plainly.

"Art's my little sister," he muttered.

"Oh. I had a little brother," she uttered monotonously.

"Had? Uh, I mean, it's not in my place to ask. I'm sorry."

"It's okay," she whispered.

"I'm sorry too. I noticed that there weren't any adults here, the oldest looked eighteen or nineteen. Did you.. Lose your mum and dad?" she asked slowly.

"Yeah. Fire Nation killed 'em. C'mon, lets go get you some food," he took the frame from her, setting it down on the table.

"What is this place?" she asked dumbly.

"We're sort of the resistance. We fight against the Fire Nation, along with the other three bending races. We generally cause mischief and disrupt the leading General's afternoon tea, but it's been getting more serious by the mission. You're welcome to.. To join, Maude," he explained.

"I.. I don't know. When I'm practically still alive because of a Fire Nation General's son's polite manners and reasonings." Marvelow's look towards her turned steely and she recoiled a bit. "And because you, Marsh, rescued me so valiantly from that fire," she added.

"Well. Leave any time you like." he said coldly, then slipped back out of the tent. Maude was alone. She fidgeted with the silky red robe she'd been given as comfort over her singed clothes. She darted out of the tent in a second and through the crowds of combatting teenagers. Bursts of fire came from every direction and she regretted it almost immediately.

"Marvelow!" she wondered looking for his retreating figure, but no answer came. "Marshmallow-" she was cut off.

"What are you thinking!?" he cried, pulling her to the side of the battlefield.

"I'll join. I will. I swear I'll be useful," she thought she saw a spark in his eyes, but he carefully covered it up with a brief recomposition.

"I know- I know you will," he said with confidence.

Florence

Time Telling

She pulled off the institute patient uniform and changed her cloth wrappings and clothing to the ones the healers had given her the other day. It was a plain red tunic, black leggings and pointed red shoes. There was a Brown cloak set to the left, but it wasn't cold outside. They'd told her to be ready to leave in an hour...an hour ago.

After an unpleasant night at an expensive and well known tavern, she could only think back to one good thing that had occurred that last evening; tea by a fireplace with Landon and Cara, and then after Cara had gone to bed, it was only her and him, and it was really truly lovely and then it was over.

Florence put on the cloak anyways, realizing that it would be freezing once they actually arrived at the Water Tribe. She checked the mirror, and rather then putting her hair up in a top knot, she braided it around her head like a crown like Maude did when she had enough time to do something pretty. Flo sighed and left the toilets.

She walked down the hall and down the stairs into the lobby. Cara seemed to have been waiting for her, though she was occupied. "I don't know what you problem is, but mate, you've gotta find a way to vent."

"Oh, I'm the one that needs to vent. Funny, really."

"Bugger off."

"I don't even know what that means."

"That's a little sad."

"Hi Cara. Nico." she nodded at them, sending gazes that shut them up on the spot.

"Flo." Cara acknowledged bitterly. Florence frowned, unready to spend god knows how long with them together.

"Where's Landon?" she asked.

"He's upstairs, packing his stuff. We're leaving in ten minutes," Nico answered, checking his watch.

Watch.

Florence made a double take. "Nico!" she exclaimed.

He looked incredibly taken aback. "What?" he stuttered.

"You have a watch!" she cried.

"So that's what they're called.." he muttered inwardly.

"How... How did you get that?" she demanded.

"I made it," he confessed, "I saw her.. Watch.. And I made one for myself."

"You made an entire watch just from a glance? And it works? Those take forever to make!"

"Do they? I.. I just like making things. Things with gears and clockworks.." he grumbled.

"Spirits. What about automatons?" Cara asked.

"Automo-whats?"

"Never mind," she murmured, turning away and checking_ her_ watch.

Florence breathed deeply. "You did very well on making that thing. What else have you made?" she wondered.

"Usually just little wind up toys, sometimes I fix boat engines. My mom taught me most of it."

"Oh. Right. Sorry. I'm going to go find Landon," Flo hasted.

"No need," he muttered waving it off, "He's here," and then in that moment, a rather ruffled, tired and slightly bothered Landon tripped down the stairs with a bag over his shoulder. He messed up his hair and scratched the back on his neck. "Let's go. I'm sorry. I'm late. C'mon."

"How'd you sleep?" Florence chirped, hoping for a more positive environment.

"Ugh, Fine."

"Liar," Cara sang as she walked by.

"Did you have nightmares?" Flo asked curiously.

"Uhh... Sure. Well, I got a letter from my dad. He's sort of.. Ticked about the Manor burning down."

"He blamed it on you? Good lord! How terribly unfair," Florence declared.

"It's nothing really," he sighed.

"Liar!" Cara hummed once more from where she walked ahead of them.

"Shut up Cara. Landon, you know you can talk to me about this... I'm a pretty understanding person, at least more so then Cara, and that's really quite obvious, and that's also not a great example." She finished cautiously.

He looked pitying, then sad, and then falsely hopeful. "Nah, it's fine."

"Listen Landon," Cara stopped in front of them,

"I don't know if you have.. A condition, or something, but you've got to sort out your habit. You just wont stop lying." she concluded with concern and continued on her way.

"Don't listen to her, it's okay to have walls, I understand if you want to keep it to yourself. However, I know from experience that it's always better to tell someone about your issues. Really." He looked genuinely comforted for just a second.

Florence decided that she'd done all she could at the moment, and so squeezed his hand and stepped out the front door.

Cara

Chandelier

They walked to an ostrich carriage that had been on standby for the past twenty minutes or so. Cara thought about Nico's watch and vaguely wondered if he had photographic memory. Hell, what did she care?

She climbed into the back of the carriage and let her gaze drift until they reached the harbour. Gazing up at the steam liner she felt only a bit of jealously. It really was an absolutely gorgeous boat. They made their way into the ship and up to the captain's deck. Nico picked up a large captain's hat that fell over his eyes.

Cara snorted. "My dad's," he explained indignantly. She nodded with obvious false interest and sat herself down before the wide windows. Everything switched on and she jumped with a start. Nico made a speech over the intercom for the crew explaining their destination and estimated time staying.

He sounded like the captains of yachts in movies from the fifties.

"Do you have any books?" she wondered, bored to say the least.

"Yeah. I'll show you later," he muttered.

"What do you do here all day?" she questioned.

"Er, I tell people what direction we're going in, and then we go in that direction."

"What's this boat called?"

"Cecelia."

"Like the song?" she asked.

"What song?"

"You know, the one by Simon and Garfunkle-Oh! Nothing. Who on earth was Cecelia? Some ex girlfriend?" she wrinkled her nose.

"My mom's name was Cecelia. She died when I was young."

"Shit, right, sorry," she groaned internally and lowered her gaze guiltily. "Hey, so, have you ever slept on this boat?" she wondered randomly, an attempt to lighten the mood after her fail at humour.

"Oh, yeah, loads of times. Most of the time actually, when I'm not staying at Landon's Manor or my apartment. It's sort of my house." Cara thought about that an jealously trickled into her system.

"I like sleeping outside when it's really good weather," he added.

"Wow. That's gotta be awesome. I had to share my house with two little sisters and a mum and dad. I had extremely little space to myself."

"Had to?" he asked, wondering towards the referred past tense.

"Uh. Sure." she got up and walked out, rather abruptly, and into a bathroom. She examined herself in the mirror, a thing she hadn't had the chance to do for the past half week. Her hair was turning more silver, like it typically did when she was stressed, and the tiny uncoordinated braids were falling apart.

They rarely ever did that. Yet another uncommon thing about her hair that she'd come to live with.

She re-braided little snippets of her hair and messed it up a bit, grimacing at herself. She walked back out and the ship started up. She heard Nico's voice over the intercom once more, calmly stressing they were about to leave the dock, so any passengers ought to buckle up.

"Okay, so by any passengers I mean the rude one with the white hair, buckle up, you're the only one not on the deck," he instructed. She snorted, wondering how many crew members would be curious as to who in god's name this 'rude one with the white hair' happened to be. She strolled back to the deck, this time a little more quiet and uncharacteristic towards herself and the others.

Cara sat back down and gazed out the window with a look that could be misinterpreted as a glare. It softened as they moved forward and turned into the ocean. Every now and then somebody would start to say something and refrain, casting an unsure glance in her direction.

"You _are_ allowed to talk.." she sighed.

Slowly, small conversation started up at the back of the room between Landon and Florence, the other couple crew members managing the dials and such began to exchange updates, though Nico remained silent and Cara remained bitchy and nothing much changed for the next hour, until, "So, how about those books? I'm sure somebody else can come up and stand in for you," she asked.

"I'll get Landon to show you-"

"-No, ugh, look at them, they're so cozy together, I don't feel like going near them," she grumbled.

"Why me then? Wont we blow something up? We're not even out of Fire Nation territory yet."

"I'm sure we can find some sort of communication to work with that doesn't involve explosions."

"Okay. Whatever." Nico called one of the two crew members over, "I'll be back in five or ten minutes." Their nods were accompanied by expected silence. He began to walk out of the room rather briskly, and awfully unexpectedly, so Cara stumbled out of her seat after him.

Nico and Cara wound down halls and flew down stairs until eventually they found themselves at a porthole.

"Hey! I know where we are!" Cara exclaimed, quite out of breath, "This is just a few rooms away from where I stayed last time- across from Maude!" she cut short and inhaled sharply, realizing what she'd just said. "Uh-I-"

He began to open the porthole, and then stepped inside, without signal. She followed him. The room they stood in had four wide walls and a tall ceiling. There was a plain chandelier, three of the walls were covered in stacks and random shelves of book after book, and there was a messy bed on the fourth, not all bare wall.

Above the bed there was a painting. Next to that painting there was another, and another and one more over there. It was all in all quite a nice room and she wished for something like this for herself.

There wasn't much for table space, just lots of floor and a few cushions.

"You can read in here if you want. Help yourself." he left. Cara hadn't realized she'd been holding her breath, and so let it out shakily.

She recollected herself somewhat, at least as best she could and took a short walk around the room, looking at book titles, the paintings, all signed at the bottom 'Cecelia'. So his mum made these. Cara supposed that's where he got his knack and creativity for making little trinkets.

She examined everything, the embroidery on the pillows, she mapped out the creaky iron over the floor, she went through every single book title before she settled on a final five books; Air Nomadic Art History, Famous Ship Captains and Their Brief Biographies, The Myth of the Sun Warriors, The Conquered Dragon Files, and An Overview of Water Tribe Metalwork.

Cara dragged together several pillows into a make shift chair, realized how that was totally not going to work, and then threw herself at the bed, propping up on the comfortable mess of coal scented blankets and opening up the first book.


	10. Welcome x2-Hot and Cold-Sort of Strange

Maude

Welcome, Welcome

"This is delicious. I didn't even know this sort of food existed. What is this? I think I'm going to cry. My mouth is crumbling to ash. I demand to become best friends with your cook." Between each bite, Maude made it her duty to say one of these several sentences.

"I'm glad you think so. But it's probably just the lack of nutrition that's making you feel so thankful for edible substance-"

"Shut up. Don't repel my lovely compliments. It's splendid, really. Spectacular. Superb. Sumptuous. Stately. Sublime-"

"Now _you've_ really got to shut up. Honestly, your mind has no limit. That's going to be useful," he grinned.

"Thanks Marshmallow."

"Any time."

"So, what do I get to do?"

"What are you good at?"

"Um. I have sufficient sketching skills. Math and stuff. I.. I don't know."

"We can work on that. As for a job, we're going on a mission tomorrow night. Art, Winnie, Navy, Nox, Melisande and Myself. If you think you can help, you can come along."

"That sounds very serious. I'd like to- but I'd probably just screw it up," she replied glumly. Before he could reply he was rather enthusiastically interrupted.

"Ohh! Who's this, Marv?" a girl about the same age as them both skipped over.

"Maude, this is Colette. Colette, this is Maude," he sighed, suddenly Marvelow looked years older.

"Pleasure," Colette grinned, throwing herself at Maude with a generous hug. Awkwardly, Maude patted her on the back.

"Likewise." "So, how long have you been here? Marv never tells me about these things, we get new people all the time- and I dont even know they're new until months after when I meet them! Of course, by then they're not actually new-"

"Col, stop it."

"Oh. Sorry," she apologized dramatically and collapsed into the chair next to them.

"So what do you do here?" Maude asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"I help. You know, with so many smelly young adults the stench can get really awful here sometimes, so I do the laundry, I clean and organize, I help with the cooking-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Maude stopped her, "Did you make this?" she pointed at her soup.

"Oh! Yeah, I didn't know that was for you-"

"-This is the most filling, mouth watering, inexplicably, lip-smacking, melt-in-your-mouth delectable dish I've every consumed in my life. Thank you." Maude bowed her head.

"Oh! No one's ever complimented my food before! I feel so loved.." she went on.

"Anyways!" Marvelow eventually finished her off.

"Maude, I think you should come tomorrow night. It's only a small mission. We're going to sort of prank the Fire Lord's leading Council Member's seventy second birthday party."

"Oh, that doesn't sound small at all. What's the prank?"

"Winnie is going to rig their fountains up to a hand controlled device and it's going to flood the gardens and the main halls." "Wow, all those lovely dresses and gowns will be ruined," Colette lamented.

"Well, er, I suppose I could do something.."

"Great, I'll talk to you tonight about it."

"Why not now?" Maude asked.

"I have a sort of agenda, or, well, Maeve has an agenda," he explained, standing up from the table and nodding at them.

"Who's Maeve?" she directed at them both.

"Marv!" somebody from across the room walked over, or rather strutted. With her Creamy black hair swishing behind her in a high pony tail, and her toffee colored eyes glittering, she really rather collectedly made herself known by planting a massive kiss on his lips and linking her arms around his neck to which he responded with much enthusiasm.

After (long, long after), she introduced herself as Maeve and dragged him away.

"That's Maeve." Colette spat bitterly.

"O-oh. I didn't know he had somebody-"

"-He's had PLENTY of somebodies. Maeve was quite the surprise though, I actually didn't believe he could stoop so low," she explained.

"I'm such an idiot.." Maude put her head in her hands.

"Oh sweetie, don't tell me you were interested in him. Honestly, he's just a _magnet_," Colette said the last part to herself.

"Oh god.." Maude moaned, lifting her head up.

"It's fine, there are loads of other incredibly good looking guys here!"

"Oh, no its not like I was looking for anyone.. Uh.. He was just really-"

"No, trust me dear, let me explain, you don't want to make the same mistake twice." Colette paused, took a deep breath, and continued: "There's Timothy, though he's a bit emotionless, Tru, who'll steal everything from you, Oliver, he's pretty attractive actually, and really thoughtful, Navy, oh wait.. No he's dating Nox, they've been together for a very long time, and Felix, oh, wait, Felix is actually thirteen. Never mind. Also, forget Tru, he's not available either."

"Why not? Who's his girlfriend?" Maude asked.

"Oh, no one really..." Colette continued.

She could see where this was going, and so Maude pressed on. "Is that so? Do continue."

Colette squirmed. "Okay, fine! I sort of maybe am a little bit in love with him," she snapped.

"Ohh, who's Col in love with?" a guy their age with spiky, shocking red hair sat down across from them in Marv's previous seat.

"Nobody. I didn't think there were gingers here," Maude covered smoothly.

"Speak for yourself."

"Yes, well _I'm_ not from here."

"Where are you from? And who are you anyways?" he asked rudely.

"I'm Maude. And you're Tru?" she assumed.

"In the flesh," he grinned. "So Col, who's the lucky guy?"

"Nobody, unlike yourself, Maude has the human capacity to tell the truth," she retorted.

"Wow, that's funny. Your name is Tru, and you can only lie? So-" she paused. "Are you actually named Tru?" Maude scrunched up her brow.

"I don't only lie..." he trailed as he stood up again.

"I steal too," he concluded, and produced The tie to the red robe Maude wore with a childish grin. He dropped it on the table and ran out of the dining hall before Colette could scold him.

"What on earth do you see in him?" she wondered after some time.

Florence

Hot and Cold

"Listen, uh, my dad isn't like me, or- I hope he isn't. You just need to know that now. Before- or whenever you meet him. It might be a while, he's got a lot of.. Work."

"Alright," she nodded to him, inspecting his expression; a vague mixture of worry, warning and weariness.

"I know you'll like it there," he put his head on his crossed arms to gaze up at her.

"How? Tell me," she wondered.

"It's cold there, and that's sort of a put off, but when you take a while to look at the scenery, you see the tall ice buildings and snow sculptures, the Water Tribe also happens to have a huge selections of plants and flowers," the corner of his mouth turned and he gazed off in a stupor.

"Cara loves flowers, but she'll never talk about her interest in them. She and Maude know the names to so many, sometimes they had contests on who could remember the most species without repeating one," Florence noted. "Oh. That was really depressing. Still, tell me more, what are _your_ favorite flowers?"

He looked at her unsurely, confused by her sudden enthusiasm. "I like Crystal Lace and Ice Blooms," he said slowly.

"They sound extravagant! How many times have you been to the Water Tribe?"

"Only once. I've been to the Fire Nation Colonies, and the outskirts of Ba Sing Se, though never the Water Tribe Cities until a few weeks ago, after the Tribe had been conquered," his voice dulled. "I've really only seen the pictures of those flowers. They're sort of similar to Fire Lilies, so I can imagine."

"Well when we have some free time I'm sure we can go check them out," she smiled at him and he shifted his chin to smile just as happily back.

She looked away to see Cara stalk out of the room, immediately she turned to look at Nico, who seemed rather unaffected. Minutes later, Nico made some announcement over the sound-resonating intercom, and Cara came right back in without anything to remark.

They remained quiet, and soon Cara notified them they were allowed to talk (almost as an order) so they couldn't help but do exactly that.

"Where are we going to stay?" Florence asked idly.

"I'll try an sort out somewhere for us, honestly, I don't think I can spend time around my father right now."

"Anything is alright for Cara." Flo looked up again. "Speaking of.." she paused. "Where's Cara?" she called across the room.

"Reading or something," Nico replied.

Flo raised her eyebrows. Where could there be books on an army ship? "I think I'm going to go have a look for her," she cut short. "Where is she reading?" Flo wondered, loudly again.

"A couple rooms down from her own." She nodded, taking this into account, and hopped off her stool. Once out the doors, she made a mental map in her head of the ship and then, once at the porthole, knocked lightly.

"Come in."

"Hi," she smiled as she closed the slab of iron behind her.

"Hey," Cara replied, setting down her book.

"What is this room?" she inquired, gazing at the tall shelves and the paintings.

"I think it belongs to the jerk steering this boat."

"Riiiight. Sort of messy, isn't it?" she commented.

"I've always felt more at home in a messy environment," Cara shrugged and patted the spot on the bed beside her. "Come sit down," she instructed.

On her way to the bed, she picked up a couple pillows to sit up on.

"So, you were getting pretty comfortable with Landon just a few minutes ago, no?" Cara questioned. She tapped her fingers on the hard cover of the book, as if she wanted to get the conversation out of the way immediately.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh come on, drop the shit, you like him. Like, you _like_ like him." She paused and snorted. "I can't believe I just said that, I sounded like a thirteen year old girl," and then she furrowed her brow. "I can't believe I just compared myself to a thirteen year old girl."

"I _like_ like Landon about as much as you _like_ like Nico."

"Lie of the century. Seriously, you know you cant lie to me. How many years has it been? Six? Honestly Flo."

"Well, I mean, he's very sweet. And he smells nice. You could say.. I have growing interest in him."

Cara choked on what could only have been the air and burst into giggles. It took several moments for her to calm, and when she finally did she shrugged and admitted; "Fine, I can see where this is going. I'll drop it if you're going to be in denial."

"Denial about what?" Flo pressed stonily.

"Precisely."

"What are you reading?" she wondered.

"An Overview of Water Tribe Metalwork. It's really interesting. They haven't progressed to automatons or proper electricity, but they know how to make gears move. Wow. I haven't checked my cell phone since last week. I'll never get to again- since it's burned down with the rest-" she stopped in realization of what she was about to say. "Sorry, Flo," she muttered.

"It's fine, there's no reason to be sad," Cara looked at her like she was crazy.

"They didn't find a body, did they? Maude is clearly still alive."

"Oh not this again-" Cara held her breath.

"We're going to find her, after this is over. I _know_ she's still alive," Flo concluded.

"Right, sure. Don't you have a boyfriend to get back to?" Cara grumbled in not all of a teasing way.

"If you want me to, I'll go. See you later Cara."

"Yeah, dinner or something. Whatever." Florence stood and brushed off her long tunic, glared at Cara, who glared just as meaningfully back, and left swiftly. Mumbling to herself through the halls, she found herself standing outside, at the front of the rapidly moving ship, the black metal rough under her shoes.

She walked over to the tip and leaned on the rail, taking in the spray and the sun and the vastness of the deep blue ocean. She thought about her cottage in Canada, where she owned her very own boat and where she'd jump off cliffs everyday.

Did she miss it? Yes, she most definitely did. But did she regret finding the valve, really? Did she? No, Maude wasn't actually dead, she was sure of it- and never in her life did she picture herself going on an adventure quite like this. She sighed deeply.

"May I join you?" she heard a voice and spun around.

"That all depends," she settled for.

"On what, if I might ask?"

"How about, a riddle? Which is faster, hot or cold?" she inquired. He thought for a moment.

"Hot," was Landon's final answer. "You can catch a cold."

She smiled at him bashfully. "Well done. Yes you may join me."

Cara

Sort of Strange

She let out a deep, dramatic and very audible breath and she shut her eyes. They'd woken up really early, and she'd decided that she was never and never would be a morning person.

Cara was tired, it was not much surprise to her when she fell into a sound sleep. She wasn't so big on dreams either, at least she didn't have as many dreams as Flo or Maude would usually have.

Though in this slumber she could see shelves of books, not like the ones in this room, and a specific paper, she could make out seldom sentences throughout reading all those novels like; three leaving ten, and one hundred thirteen. She was shaken awake by a jerk of the ship.

"Ugh." she wiped her eyes and pushed herself out from under the blankets. Dreams hadn't been pleasant for her since she was young. She'd often envied Maude and Flo's reoccurring typical romantic or adventurous 'Alice in Wonderland' dreams.

"Of course I leave for ten minutes and some first time idiot almost kills us," somebody mumbled. She looked around her.

"Oh, you," she muttered.

"You've woken up."

"No I haven't."

"Hysterical."

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"I'm writing a letter," he replied bluntly.

"To who?"

"When was it decided that I would share every personal shard of my life with you?" he asked.

"Okay, okay. Why didn't you wake me up then? If you like privacy so damn much," she coerced.

"You looked perfectly fine there."

"Creep."

"I wasn't watching you sleep!" he claimed.

"Then you should have woken me up!"

"Well then, I'll remember that for next time."

"What _next time_?" she snapped.

"Never mind!" they stayed like that for a moment.

"Don't you want me to leave or something?"

"Stay or go, I don't care."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"I'll just stay here."

"Okay." She picked up her book. He picked up his paint brush. She did try, really, to stay quiet just for a little bit, but- "Do you not have other writing utensils? Only paint brushes?" she wondered.

"How long have you been here for?" he asked incredulously.

"A few days."

"I'm talking about this world."

"I am too."

"Alright. Uh, no, we don't."

"Do you actually use it for painting as well?"

"Where are you really from?" he demanded.

"I asked first," she retorted.

"Yes, I do use it for painting."

"Are you any good?" she wondered.

"No, you have to answer mine now."

"When was that ever established?"

"What- but-"

"Okay, I'm from Toronto. It's in Canada. You haven't heard of it."

"Huh. Well, I think I'm pretty good at painting actually," he decided after some thought.

"Can I see your art?"

"Nah. Can I see your home city?"

"Maybe when I can find it again, that all matters on something else entirely. You're sort of odd," she said, standing up and walking over to lean against a book shelf.

"You're sort of peculiar."

"Bizarre."

"Uncanny."

"Eccentric."

"Offbeat."

"Puzzling."

"Curious."

"Uncommon."

"Irregular."

"Fine, you win."

He grinned triumphantly.

"Well then, I suppose I'll let you get back to your twirly calligraphy."

"That sounds funnily referred to as if it were only a female pass time..." he trailed.

"How could you say that? Why, by my spirits, would I dare call _you _girly?"

"I have no idea in the slightest." It was her turn to grin.

"You're kind of perplexing," he sighed, frowning.

"You're kind of atypical," was what she managed to shoot back as she stepped out the porthole.

Cara's memory drifted from wavy haired quick wits to her dream. One hundred thirteen. Why did that number make her want to curl up in her mum's arms? Why was she thinking of her mum? Because she bloody missed her, idiot, she told herself. It had been a while. She wondered if her family was worried. How many people would be searching for them when they were off on a manic adventure with some practically strangers in an ongoing war?

She cursed a few times under her breath, at one point it was because she'd stubbed her toe, but mostly to vent. She hadn't properly vented in a while. And actually, she wasn't sure how to do so exactly. Cara made a decision in that moment, to change back into her thick combat boots, and to not ever think about her family until she had a single chance at getting home.


	11. WMW-Neglected-Scribble

Maude

Winnie Made Weapons

"This is Ophelia. She prefers Lea," Colette sent a sickly sweet smile in the other girl's direction.

"So you're Florence, Cara, Maude. Weird name. Word sure got out fast about _you_," she sniffed, and for a moment Maude thought she'd inhaled helium.

"It's just Maude. Lovely to meet you, _Ophelia_."

"Mmm, yes. You too." Nope, she just had a really high voice then.

"Leeeeeaa used to date Marv." Colette interjected.

"Before that bitch Maeve took him from me. And really, do you always have to mention that, Colette? Every person I meet? I mean honestly-"

"-An honor talking, Lea, but we've got plenty of people left, and I'm sure you know you're not that special," Colette dragged Maude out of the room in a second, darted down the hall and burst into a fit of giggles.

"Is she really that awful?" Maude laughed with her and then wondered if it was probably a good thing she was on Colette's good side.

Colette went dead serious. "Yes, she really, really is," she smiled again.

"There's way more drama here than I'd expected..." Maude mumbled. "Come on now, we have more people to meet!" She lead her through the tented halls and out to the practice field.

"I know they're here somewhere- oh, hi Navy," she nodded to the guy but didn't stop to talk, and instead turn around and walked back in the direction of the armoury. On the way she explained;

"Winnie spends a lot of time in there with Timothy building weapons and stuff, he's the manager, but she's the real mechanic, her and Melisande spend a lot of time together, too." Maude acknowledged this all silently, and allowed herself to be pulled by hand all the way through the tunnels. A girl in brown chest wrappings, a dark green body suit tied at her waist and a bandana walked past them, a wrench in hand.

"Winnie!"

"Oh, hi Colette," like Marvelow, she seemed weary all of a sudden.

"Are you going to find Mel?"

"Actually yes, I am. Do you want to talk to her?" she asked, toying with her wrench shyly.

"Yes, and you. This is Maude. Maude, this is Winnie. She's our mechanic and my favorite genius." Winnie smiled coyly.

"Nice to meet you! I've always been intrigued by clockwork!" Maude tried to make the girl comfortable.

"That's uh.. I'll find Mel for you," she rushed away and they could only follow. They entered the armory. A young woman, presumably Melisande and about nineteen stayed upright in a consistent handstand, deep in conversation with a teenage boy who managed a consistent expression of monotone for the duration of their exchanging.

"That's Tim, and that's Mel. Guys, this is Maude. She's new. Be nice to her." Melisande cut short hers and Tim's conversation, stood right ways up and cartwheeled over.

"Hi! I'm Melisande or Mel or Lisa but I think Mel's okay. How about you?"

"Yeah, Mel sounds good." She looked around after a strange hand shake with a most certainly double jointed acrobat and spotted Winnie at work in the corner. Her wrench seemed to be coming in handy at the time, Maude noted.

"Maude's going on the mission with you guys tomorrow night," Timothy paid little attention, though Winnie stopped her work to listen and Mel squealed with glee.

"Oh this is awesome! What are you going to be doing?"

"Well, um, I'm not sure."

"Oh, Marv will take care of that, I'm confident," Mel reassured.

"When he's not off planning agenda's with Maeve.." Colette added. Maude's gaze fell and Colette hastily recovered; "Nevertheless, we can do fun things too. Who wants to teach Maude how to use a dagger?" Colette grinned, "I assume you can't bend, yeah?" Maude nodded, shocked.

"Well then you may as well learn some self defence with a Winnie made weapon, what say ye?" "Uh, well.. uh..sure, daggers sound sort of.. Uh.. do you maybe have.. Something else?" Timothy looked up, a glimmer in his eyes.

"Something else?" he asked slowly, his voice was deep and rumbly. Setting down the arrow he was polishing, he turned around, muttering obscenely to himself, and pulled open a rickety sliding door.

"Does this look like _something else_ to you?" he asked. She marvelled at the sight, row upon row of sword, crossbow, spear, dagger, throwing knife, shield and finally, where she paused, circular blades.

"What are those?" "Oh, we don't have a name for them, Navy found their design in some book that got destroyed. They're very difficult to use, are you sure you want to try those?" Colette asked.

"Yeah. I think so." Delicately, she picked up a circle blade, trying to avoid cutting her flesh and succeeding impeccably.

Part III

Try That Way, Try Their Way

"_Lest We Forget"_

Renegade Queens

Florence, Cara, Maude

Florence

Neglected

"Remind me the name of the boat?" she pleaded.

"Cecelia, after Nico's mother," Landon supplied.

"Right, thank god."

"Why are you concerned?" Landon wondered.

"There's this historic event about a boat called the Titanic, and someone... Rewrote it into a romantic drama. There's just this scene in it..." she stopped. "Never mind." from the situation she now found herself in, Flo had a hard time 'never minding'.

They stood side by side, passing acknowledgments and realizations back and forth as the ocean spray tickled their faces and hands. She felt the need to move to one side of the boat, or to the back- but they were up at the very front... Just like that one scene. She found it challenging as she choked back laughter.

Flo could just pray that they wouldn't hit an iceberg. Suddenly, her expression went serious. It was totally reasonable, they were going to the Water Tribe, not Tahiti. Ice all around. "How good of a captain is Nico on a scale of one to ten?" she asked slowly, voice a little higher.

"Eleven," he decided. "He's incredible, amazing for seventeen, too. I'd trust him with my life. I've known him for most of it, anyways." She nodded, now calm, in understanding.

"Dinner's soon," he noted. "Maybe we should-"

"Go inside, yeah," she agreed. And with a leap of silent hope in his conscience, he reached out and linked his hand with hers, leading her inside. They walked up to the deck, then their hands dropped the instant they walked in. Cara sat staring out the window. Though someone stood in for Nico.

"Where is he?" Landon asked.

"Writing a letter," she said calmly.

"Ahh.." he smiled to himself. Cara twitched noticeably and Flo wondered how long it would take for her to snap from her cool composure.

Not long, it seemed.

"_Please_! PLEASE tell me! Who is it? Who is he writing to? He wouldn't tell me and-" she'd fallen out of her chair, she was literally grovelling.

"He's writing to Jax. She's his friend."

"Oh! Well thats-.. Who?" she asked shrilly.

"Jax and him have been friends for quite a while, she's always got stories and he's always got time to listen. They're pretty close. But not extra close."

"Why's that? They sound soul-fitting," Cara muttered.

"Jax sort of likes girls," he explained.

"Oh." Cara sat back down and put her head in her hands and it was quite silent. She slowly began, lifting her head, "I mean, I didn't care that much I just wanted to-"

"-Shut up Cara. We're going to have dinner," Flo snapped tiredly.

"Oh.. Okay," she gave up.

"See that table over there?" Landon pointed to the corner. "We can pull it out to the center of the room and pull the chairs from the other side to sit on," he explained. And so, after a few minutes of dragging and cursing the had a sort of dining area set out.

"I call not getting to food," Cara sighed, plopping into one of the chairs.

"Come on," Florence smiled at Landon,

"I suppose that means us then." They strolled out together, hands in pockets, or rather, in the female's case, linked behind her back as she had no damn pockets to her distaste. They decided on roasted ham and a cooked salad. Some sort of fancy Fire Nation alcohol that made Flo's nose wrinkle and some exotic fruit was picked up in the process.

Flo was also sure to grab some different main meal for Cara, knowing she'd be dead if she wasn't sure to show her awareness to the latter girl's vegetarianism. They took their time walking up to the deck again, knocking in on Nico in the process. He'd just sent his letter by messenger hawk (Florence gaped) and was ready to get back to work anyways, was what he'd pretty much countered.

They'd gone up all together, nutrients in hand and laid it on the table, not saying anything in the way of a thanks before the four stuffed their faces- quite ungracefully, they'd agree upon in the future. In the distance, after their supper, she could here Cara guilt-tripping Nico- unsuccessfully, to Flo's surprise- about meat consumption.

Though truthfully, all she could care about at the time was the way Landon tapped his hand like he was playing music when he thought, or how he subconsciously ruffled up his hair, or why his gaze averted and his cheeks reddened when he caught her examining- rather- staring at him.

"Why Ice Blooms? Why Crystal Lace?" she finally asked.

"They're neglected," he replied in surprise.

"They're incredibly poisonous flowers, only if you eat them, but they're gorgeous, really. Nobody seems to notice it because of the danger and mystery they possess." Nico and Cara had stopped bickering to listen.

"That's fucking poetic." Cara exclaimed, a little drunk. Then right after, she went back to her insults.

"That's lovely," Florence murmured.

"You know, I didn't think people like you existed, all polite and gentlemanly and intelligent. There's no one like that where I'm from." she smiled at him and stood up.

He followed. "Nor I, everyone here is so superficial." he smiled back.

"I think I'm going for an early night," she decided softly. Florence had some mixed feelings that needed a while to sort out.

"Sleep well," he nodded.

"Night, you guys," she waved to the others.

"Nighty night, sweet dreams!" Cara hummed.

"Don't let the fire ants bite," Nico followed with a terrifyingly serious tone. She tried to laugh at this but it came out rather strangled and so she hurried out of the room and through hallways to the comfort of her bed and the darkness of her room.

Cara

Scribble

"Murderer," she spat.

"I don't regret my choices," he shrugged, chewing away.

"You're eating it right now! In front of me!" she exclaimed.

"Am I? Do I apologize now or something?" he smirked.

"That poor flying cow."

"Your poor crushed heart."

"Good night." Landon noted their presence and walked, rather metaphorically floated out of the room with a small smile on his face.

"They're gross. All of that gooey love-y shit is really getting to me."

"Tell me about it."

"I'd rather not."

"I didn't-"

"Yeah yeah yeah. So," she paused for drama, "I'd love to hear about this Jax you're so fond of," Cara said slowly.

Nico sighed in defeat. "Landon cant keep a damn secret, can he?"

"Oh, Landon can keep secrets perfectly well, I just have incredible spidey-senses."

"What?"

"Ugh. God, nothing. I cant believe they don't have comics– or films here."

"What's film?" he asked, now thoroughly intrigued.

"I propose an exchange- Jax for film," she concluded.

He nodded slowly, "Alright," and scratched the back of his neck. "A couple years ago I was... Not at my best in life, one night, I got kicked out of a tavern some time after dark. This girl, she helped me find an ostrich carriage, and I asked her out, but she said no-"

"What a shock," Cara cut in, sipping delicately at her drink, a pinkie in the air.

He gave her a deadpan stare. "Anyways. She helped me all the way back home, and in the drunken state I was consumed in I don't think I could have made it without her. She told me she was traveling, looking for her family. I told her she could stay at my apartment for the night. The next day we exchanged contact information. We caught up in person a couple months ago, but I've only met her twice."

"Wow. So you just know each other from letters. That's... Really nice. Like pen-pals or some shit."

"I'd disagree if I knew what that meant. So, tell me about this File-m."

"It's pronounced _film_." she muttered snobbily, though he was rather unaffected.

"Well in Toronto, where I'm from, there are these things called photographs. You can practically capture a moment in time and keep it with you like a painting- just of the respectably actual thing. Film is a series of photographs layered upon one another to give the illusion of movement. It's like you're capturing hours of things that happened in a life to watch then or later or whenever you damn well please. Film is a source of entertainment, on the most part, but it's also a plain source of inspiration and a scrapbook of memories." Cara sighed, impressed and saddened by her own explanation.

"That's incredible. How do you.. do film?"

"There are these devices called cameras, you press a button on them, point them at your desired soon to be memory, and voila, film," she laughed breathily.

"Where is Tertono. Terreno. Teronter. Ugh-"

"Toronto," she snickered. "It's in a place called Canada, and Canada is in North America, and I actually don't know where North America is right this very moment. Something happened a few days ago and we just sort of- appeared here."

"What?"

"I.. I don't really know."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"I guess I kinda needed to tell someone besides Flo or Maude," she exhaled and her eyes glittered with salt water.

"It's all my fault too, that were here. That she's gone and not coming back. That Flo has false hope. That we'll never see-" she coughed, and wiped her eyes. "Sorry," she whispered, and then she stood up. "That got serious rapidly.. I'm gonna- gonna go." Cara rushed from the room.

"Hey- wait!" he shouted. Nico stood, confused beyond recognition and a little flushed.

"I'll be back, just- eat some stuff, you guys." He nodded to the crew members, who were quite oblivious to recent happenings and sped off the deck. He found her sitting in her chambers, scribbling sketches on a piece of spare parchment with some coal. She'd curled up her legs and dried her eyes mostly, though they were quite filled with remorse.

"You needn't have apologized," he started slowly. "I had no idea what you were saying, but it's okay to break down, you know."

She stopped and sent him a criticizing glare. "And you would know-"

"Just let me finish. I think that Tor-Toronto sounds great, and I think you miss it, and I promise you to help you find your way back, after all of this."

She looked at him, surprised.

"I know I'm barely an acquaintance to you, practically a stranger, but you seem like an okay person I suppose. I mean you're really rude.. but.. uh.. Now pull yourself together all ready," he smirked, raising his eyebrows so they disappeared under messy black hair.

"Hey! Don't-"

"Honestly, it's pathetic. To think I was ever slightly intimidated by _you_." She took a deep breath and looked him straight in the eye.

"I have only one question for you, as an outsider, what do you think of _normal_ people, the ones with feelings?" she spat, pulling her blankets up around her.


	12. Rush of Confidence-Blood-Vitalized

Maude

Rush of Confidence

"To your left!"

"Curved right, behind you!"

"Below knee line, direct!" blades came at her from every corner and every angle. She found herself moving with inhuman grace, floating her way quite narrowly, around each fatal weapon. Once they'd all become lodged in trees, grass and other participants armour, she took her chance. Maude collapsed onto the ground, breathing in an uneven rhythm.

"H-how long have we been doing this for!? I can dodge them, is that not. Perfectly. Clear. To. You!?" she cried, rolling onto her back dramatically.

Three faces came into her view, blocking the clear blue sky and boiling sun from her gaze. "You wont last a day like this, so lazy," Colette sniffed.

"I think you did fantastic! We haven't had talent like you in a while- not since Maeve, at least," Melisande clapped.

"Room for improvement," Navy, the newest to the group spoke to the point, always in narrowed, plain sentences.

"Do you have _any_ friends, Navy?" Mel snapped.

"Nox is enough for me, thanks," he muttered.

"Can we- Can we just move on? When do I get to throw them?"

"Not for a while, my dear."

"But-but it's been four hours! Y-you cant just-" she rolled over onto her stomach to muffle her groans and pleas.

"Whiner, come one, dinner time soon, you'll enjoy this- Marv makes a speech and a toast and there are accomplishment applauses."

"Huh. Okay, can I change first?" she gestured to the sweaty, grimy, brown tunic dress she'd been given earlier that day and the disregarded silk robe on the ground.

"Um, ew, yes. I'm going to hate doing that load of laundry," Colette muttered. Maude tried a weak attempt at an apology, but it was all one word as she ran with all her might straight to the laundry room, where she'd very recently been given directions to.

There was a bin labeled spare clothes, and Maude stopped dead in her tracks. It read spare clothes, yes, but in _chinese script_. She pulled on a twirly dress made out of coral-red fabric and some leather brown boots. Looping a belt around her waist and combing out her rebelling curly red hair she checked the makeshift shard of mirror sitting on the small table in the room then left for the dining hall mumbling crazy talk about Asian culture languages.

Last time she checked, she knew a. English and b. Sort of French and c. Not Chinese. She rubbed her eyes and stopped to examine a crate. It was written in neat Chinese (she whispered a curse) and it read quite distinctively; _Felix's Exploding Rocks. Don't Touch._ She briefly wondered: Who's Felix? Let it drop, and scrambled all the way over to the dining hall, snagging her belt on a tent flap on the way. She entered and it was freshman year all over again. There were circle tables dotted all around, filled with people who all seemed to be staring down the new kid.

"Maude!" somebody called and her erratic heartbeat decreased. She sighed thankfully. She hurried her way over to the table near the front and skidded into the seat next to Colette. There was Mel, Winnie, Timothy, Tru, Navy, and a girl and boy she felt as though she'd seen around before. She whispered her introduction as the hall suddenly became quiet.

"Fantastic name Maude, much easier then what we were calling you before, I'm Leelo, do you remember me?"

"Course I do," she frowned. "You saved half my life, right? Why would I forget you?"

"I like her," he grinned.

"Nox. Nice to meet you," she smiled at Maude as if she seemed to understand every single thing about her, those blue eyes studied her completely in a second- which was a bit unnerving at that exact moment. Nox looked away and leant back against Navy's arm and Maude felt her neck un-tense.

"Evening everyone!" the hall went dead quiet and Marvelow leant against the front table in expectancy. Behind him, sitting down, was Art, Maeve (picking at her nails and looking bored already), and a strict bespectacled looking girl with her hair pulled back into a long braid.

"Rather uneventful day, though we've got a full week ahead, tomorrow's another big mission, gained a new member," he stopped and looked over at Maude with a series of emotions passing over his face.

"Er, have a good dinner, and a good nights sleep. Night guard list will be posted after supper. Lets eat. Good job everyone." There was an applause, and some teens rolled out carts supplied with mountains of food, meats, soups and pastries of every sort.

A small roar of conversation began, and then it was the unexpected; "Maude!" somebody called. Her ears perked up and she scanned the room. Marvelow waved at her invitingly. She smiled awkwardly, excused herself and snatched up a piece of bread before weaving her way through the tables to the front.

"Here, sit down- move over Maeve," he ordered. With a rush of new found confidence, Maude sat herself down and turned to hear what he had to say, blatantly ignoring Maeve's threatening mutters.

"So tomorrow night, I'm going to have you go with Art, this is her second mission, so she's not that experienced either-"

"-Shut up Marv!" Art blushed, stabbing her fork dangerously close to his hand.

"Sorry, right- well, she's going to be a distraction, a way into the party, and we need someone as back up- just incase it doesn't work-"

"-It _will_ work, Marv," Art added.

"Of course, Arty. And that back up, will be you. So if she cant, you're going to have to find a way in, be it flirting with the doorman, climbing through a window or dressing as one of the cocktail maids-"

"-Oh please, like _she_ could pull that off.." Maeve laughed.

"Maeve, please," Marv sent a meaningful look to her, and Maude couldn't help but feel a little angry and a little jealous and a lot sorrowful.

Florence

Blood

Her eyes snapped open and she sat up.

"Why's it still dark?" she asked. Nobody. Oh, right. This was her bed, and it was in a room underneath any source of natural light. Suddenly, her claustrophobia picked that moment to take effect. She hurried out of her bed and stumbled to pull on her robe.

She closed her eyes and began a pattern of deep breathing, something Maude had taught her to use when she got like this. She tumbled out of her room and through the halls up the stairs to the deck and burst through the doors, falling or rolling or crumbling or toppling on to the floor.

"Good god!" Nico exclaimed, taken aback. "Tell me, what's your reason of vengeance- I'm sorry! Whatever I did!" he joked, maintaining his facade well.

She continued inconsistent, heavy breathing as she examined her surroundings. The early morning's grey sky poured through the glass alike to the constant weightlessness of cigarette smoke, the other two crew members were nowhere to be seen, and the dinner table and chairs had been shoved back into the corner.

"Nico," she asked softly.

"Yes?" he replied in all seriousness again, though his gaze remained affixed on the blue palette of the bottomless sea.

"Did you.. Did you stay up all night?" she asked him kindly.

"Yes. I did."

"Oh my."

"Indeed," he agreed.

"Do you do this often? All nighters, just staring at the same horizon line and standing in the same place for hours in the dark?"

"Well it sounds unbelievably depressing when you put it like that," he retorted, "But yeah, and sometimes it's really kind of amazing."

"Oh."

"Landon's getting breakfast, if you cared where he was, which you do, so don't deny it."

She sniffed at him, "What I care about is non of your business," and before he could counter her, she turned to leave, only to crash into a smaller form with snowy white hair in the shape of a bird's nest upon her not literally heated head.

"This is happening A LOT." Cara landed on her back and moaned in pain.

"Shit! Sorry, I- uh- didn't see you.." she offered her hand for Cara to take, though it was strangely unaccepted.

"I think I'll stay down here," Cara murmured, gazing through her friend.

"Alright," Flo didn't think twice, after the years, she'd become used to this sort of behavior.

"Good morning!" Landon smiled at her, stepping forward.

"Before you get all love-y in front of us I want you to know several things, 1. There's someone laying down here, 2. Ew, go somewhere else, I'm losing my appetite for the most important meal of the day, and 3. I feel like midnight snack will always be the most important meal of the day, forget breakfast." Cara said loudly.

Landon looked down, his brow furrowed. "What's she-"

"Shhh." Florence commanded.

"Let's just eat breakfast," she rubbed her temples.

"I'll get the table," he offered.

"No, no it's okay. I think I like Cara's way of thinking. How about we just sit on the floor- like in the Earth Kingdom?" Flo suggested.

"Alright," he grinned at her and handed her a pastry, chucked one at the back of Nico's head and sat on the floor, pulling her with him.

"I've never eaten whilst sitting on the floor.." he noted randomly.

Cara choked on nothing and pretended to suffocate.

Flo's food dropped rather ungracefully out of her mouth.

"What?!"

"W-well I was just raised by a very upperclass system and I-"

"Oh! It's okay, Landon. There's a first time for everything, right?" she smiled supportively.

"If anybody wanted to know, we'll be arriving in a couple hours. Find some warm clothes." Nico said.

"Actually, nobody wanted to know, so you just wasted a perfectly good breath for a pointless sentence. Whatta-bloody-shame," Cara grumbled from her place across the room.

"Cara, be friendly, it's first thing in the morning," Florence muttered.

"I'll admit it, not my best," Cara shrugged.

"You'll freeze to death," Nico added.

"I'm not cold."

"Not yet," he said in a sing song voice, and if Flo could see his face she'd say he would have been smiling. Darkly. Smiling darkly.

"And I suppose you've been to the Water Tribe enough times to know this?"

"You'd be surprised."

Florence finished her pastry and crawled over to Cara to lay down next to her. "Cara," she whispered sweetly.

"You need to go put on some warm clothes. Now," she muttered, her voice threataning.

"Yes ma'am." Cara stood, saluted lazily and walked out of the room. Flo rose and brushed off her hands to comb them through her long, light hair.

"I guess I should go too," she smiled at the two, only earning one in return and followed Cara out the door. Rather then walking down to the laundry room like before, she went straight to her room where the contents of a healer packed bag beckoned.

She pulled out some thicker pants made out of a soft, warm, maroon material, and switched her tunic to one with sleeves, about the color of fairy dust, golden and glimmering. She braided her hair down her back and pulled on a cozy brown animal hide cloak with dark fur lining the edges. Then she switched her thin shoes for boots with string ties and ran back out the room to the deck, her braid whipping behind her.

Landon had also changed for a cloak, though Nico seemed perfectly content with his captain's jacket.

"We're almost there. Look," he lifted his hand from the brass golden wheel to point. What would normally be a phenomenal sight of white snow built into walls and a city of arches was tainted by the smoke and ash of fire nation vehicles and the splats of red flags as if blood on the palest skin.

"It looks so.." she scanned her mind for something.

"Sorrowful?" Nico suggested.

"No it's only.. Just that... Yeah." Landon put a hand on her shoulder and looked at her with a deep expression.

"That's why we're here."

Cara

Vitalized

She whistled her way up to the deck and once there stopped dead in her tracks. "Gorgeous," she admitted into the silence.

"Mmm, yes, I am quite, aren't I?" Nico flipped his hair back.

"You see this door behind me? Turn around, walk out it, and shut it behind you," Cara glared.

"I would consider it, but I don't think you really want to die at fourteen, you know, a ship without a captain, dangerous stuff. Also, I've heard that drowning is one of the worst way to go."

"I'm bloody sixteen," she shot him a dirty look.

"My bad, you know you're awfully short," he joked. She turned her attention back to the city, it was really quite hard to ignore.

"No offence mate, but it's probably good that you've chosen now to show up, your dad's made a fucking mess of the place," she nodded at Landon.

"Non taken. I know, had we come later..." he made a great pause.

"This is your captain speaking, please take a seat for docking, we'll be arriving soon, er, now," Nico faked the stereotypical ship's captain commands into the speaker. Cara collapsed theatrically into a a seat at the back of the room and felt a chill go up her spine. There was something spectacular about the lace patterns the ice made along the cliffs, or the fog of minuscule snowflakes.

She snuck a glance at Flo, who smiled in admiration.. She looked at home. "How do you feel?" she asked her friend.

"I'm.. I'm excited. I want to save this place, and learn about it, and make it better, and become stronger," words projected out of her mouth as she sat herself next to Cara.

"It's weird. That you can bend. It's not like you were born here, so how do you.. Have the power? Or ability, whatever."

"I don't know. Cara, I haven't a clue in the slightest. I've sincerely just been going with it. Last night, before I went to sleep I was washing my hands and I flooded the countertop. I put it back through the tap-" she smiled to herself, "It's terrifying, and fantastic, and exhilarating."

"Yeah, good for you, weirdo," Cara smirked.

"If you didn't want to-"

"Never mind. I'm sorry. It's really amazing. I'm happy that you've got something to keep you busy," she mumbled. "

You should have put your hair up or something, you know we cant see much of your face with it hanging in your eyes," Flo sniffed.

"I apologize, fashion queen, I know you have all these lovely visualizations of my hair -not messy- but it's never going to happen," she laughed.

"We'll see," Florence said evilly.

"Is it okay that I'm terrified?" Landon said from his seat.

"It's fine, it's all a natural part of being in close proximity of Her Majesty Flo," said Cara.

"Oh go away," the blonde waved. Cara dismissed her friends command easily and set her line of vision on the harbour Nico was turning them towards. Minutes later they had docked. Cara felt a vitalized rush run through her body from toes to fingers to collar bones and all over again as she stepped off the ship, strangely unaffected by the shoot of bitter frost that consumed her oh so quickly.

She stepped down from the platform onto a layer of fresh snow, a group of fire nation guards awaited her, though she walked blatantly past them, considering a rude and pointed remark, though difficulty refraining. She exhaled deeply and then took in the wintry arctic air, relishing for just a moment.

"Oi! Are you coming or what?" someone demanded. She swooshed around, her cloak billowing and glowered at him. He raised his hands and eyebrows in defence and climbed into the carriage. Rather then climb in after him, she walked to the front of the carriage and let out a short distressed scream of shock and happiness. In front of her, a furry creature scuffed it's hooves on the packed snow.

"Hullo," she smiled at it and reached out to scratch behind it's ear.

"What are you then?" she murmured, burying her nose in it's coat of wool.

"It's a buffalo yak! Now come on, it's freezing," Nico whined, igniting fire in his hands and rubbing them together, sparking, crackling, and snapping.

"Are you a girl?" she wondered. The creature licked her hand and blinked it's big brown eyes. She ignored Nico pointedly and stroked the buffalo yak from the tip of it's nose to the top of it's head. It has so much more grace to it then those bloody ostriches.

Or whatever they were.

"Thanks for this love, I know you're really hating having to serve those who imprisoned you. It's okay, I went to middle school, I know what it's like," she joked, kissed it's fur and climbed into the carriage.

"It's never that nice with us," Landon noted.

"I don't think she likes it when you call her an it," Cara replied stonily.

"O-oh. Right then," he nodded awkwardly and turned his attention intently towards Florence, who was in the back of the carriage with Nico.

As they left the ship, Nico's expression and aura became more grumpy and rude. Cara's became better for that reason- but not singularly. There was something about every inch of the Water Tribe that sunk into her skin and made her feel one hundred times better in mentality and physicality.


	13. Every Inch-Intermission-On The Verge

Maude

Every Inch

It had been irking at her all day. At breakfast, there had been a buzz in her tummy about the following events, at practice (she was still proud that she hadn't been cut by any of the knives) she'd been distracted by it, at lunch she hadn't been able to eat anything.

Maude prodded at her salad.

"Hey Maude."

"Artende- hi."

"Call me Art."

"Okay," Maude sighed and put her chin in her hands.

"Your hair is gorgeous," Art noted.

"Oh, uh, thanks. I like yours."

"Mines all stringy and grey, it's not that nice. You're is amazing. Can I style it?" she wondered.

Maude laughed. It felt really good to laugh, she decided, and if only a thirteen year old girl had accomplished a whole hearted one out of her, she clearly couldn't say no.

"Go on then," she smiled.

Art ran her fingers through the curls and Maude could almost hear her thinking. She began to section pieces and then- Maude wasn't quite sure- she began to braid.

Maude thought about the sleepover's she had with Cara and Flo when they were younger, when they did girly things like makeovers. Sometimes, they'd look up the most complex braids on the internet and try them, each time Cara would be so incredibly determined to succeed and Flo would giggle and join in anyways. They could never match it to the picture. The braid was never quite as well done.

It felt really lovely to have someone pulling through her hair again, it was like a massage, and it was considerably less painful then Cara's techniques.

"You like my brother, don't you?"

"He saved my life," Maude noted. "Of course I like him."

"No but I mean you like like him."

"I've only known him for a day."

"Love at first sight?" Art snickered.

"Have you heard of the question game? I've always hated that game. But let's play it. I ask a question, you ask a question after answering mine and it goes on."

"That's ridiculous, how is that even a game? It's sounds so-"

"It's a game because I want it to be. Now it's my turn. Why do you care so much about me liking your brother?"

"You're better than her. Everyone can see it. Maeve's such a- a- I dont know. How did he find you?" she wondered.

"He saved me from a burning house."

"Why was it on-"

"Uh-uh. My turn. Where are all the adults? It's not like everybody here is an orphan."

"Oh, well, a lot of us are, actually. But those who aren't's parents were either imprisoned, enslaved or idiots. They just didn't get along with their kids. So their kids ran. What was your life before this?"

"Hmm." Maude though. She couldn't tell her about Canada, or America, or anywhere before arriving here.

"I traveled with my friends, Cara and Florence. I believe you've met Cara. We were.. Working with Landon Fior." Art's hands froze up and she dropped a braid.

"Oh." her voice was stony, she sounded like Marvelow.

"Does Marv know?"

"I dont think so," Maude muttered.

"I see." Hesitantly, she turned around, Art was deep in thought.

"I'll be right back," she grumbled. Art darted out of the dining hall. Maude picked up her bread and began to nibble on it nervously, suddenly she thought she could eat all the food in the world. Moments later, Art was in front of her.

"Sorry," she smiled.

"Turn around again," she instructed plainly.

Maude did so while inquiring; "Do you hate every inch of me now?"

"Of course not! I didn't mean to confuse you, I think I'm okay with you having been friends with.. A Fior," she whispered his name, "because you're here now, and you're going to help us- help me, tonight. And that's what people who don't like the Fiors do."

"What's so bad about-"

"General Magnus Fior is a monster. He's murdered more people than I'd care to list. He's a cold blooded creature who lost his heart that he may have never even had years ago when he was suspected for killing his wife" Art murmured.

"Done," she was suddenly happy again, good lord, this girl was terrifying. She pulled a plain mirror from her belt.

"You have a mirror on your belt?"

"It was a present from _Maeve_. Marv said it would be insulting not to accept it," she scrunched up her nose. Maude examined herself in the looking glass.

"So that's where you went," she realized.

"Yeah." The braids themselves looped around her head and pinned in the middle where an explosion of red flowers had been woven through.

"I thought it was a bit bland, so I picked some fire lilies for it. Not that your hair is bland- I mean-"

"You should do this for a living, when you've grown up. Style hair for parties and special occasions," Maude smiled.

"Maybe, but there's so much else I have in mind," Art sat next to her.

"Well you've got your whole life ahead of you. So many open doors. But this conversation can be continued another time," she swallowed hard.

"I think we're required elsewhere." The stood up and Maude stretched her arms behind her head barely brushing the lilies. She smiled once more. She felt loads better; her stomach didn't hurt with anticipation, her head wasn't humming like crazy, her conscience had one less weight. Art lead her to the room with the maps and string. The girl with the glasses from the night before was shouting orders. Maude wondered if it made her happy, degrading all these people. Pointing out flaws in everything. She certainly didn't look sad.

"That's Imogen. She's the braniac. Sort of tedious, that girl," Art sighed. She dragged Maude over to the center table. Imogen had taken a seat and a business like expression.

"Hi, I'm Maude."

"Imogen Lee." Maude found it hard to believe that this girl could ever run away from her family. She decided it most likely that her parents were dead and suddenly felt sick. She reached out to shake hands, but Imogen formed a sign with her own. It was similar to the Earth Kingdom greeting, Maude noticed. So she copied it.

"Maude," Marvelow appeared and half smiled at her.

"Marsh," she muttered.

"His name is actually pronounced-"

"Oh, it's nothing Imogen. Anyways, we're leaving in an hour. Care to expand?"

"The plan is to follow;" at this point, Mel and Winnie had joined them. Navy and Nox walked in as she started,

"Winnie, Melisande, Nox and Marvelow will go around the back of the estate, without interference," she seemed incredibly sure of herself,

"Melisande will disable any traps, Winnie will set up the water expansion devise she's made, set it off, and everyone will leave. During so, Artende will distract and make her way into the party, and Navy will make sure nobody sees _anything_."

"Clear?" Marvelow added. "Crystal," Art grinned.

Florence

Intermission

If there was one thing about the Water Tribe that Florence Roland loved the most, it wouldn't have been the snow. Okay, so, she loved Christmas time, and the Winter, and all of that, but the snow here was like air. It was _everywhere_. As she looked out the window of the country house- yes, she just said country house, but more on that later- she could only see white; white and only white.

_How are we supposed to get to a library in this?_ she asked herself as she padded away from the glass arch in her slippers- yes she just said slippers, but more on that later- she looked around the study, there was a desk, and everything was maroon and red, a bookshelf with exactly three books rested on one wall, and golden frames with insipid paintings inside of them on another.

She gazed back out the window towards the narrow ice roads and decided that she'd enjoy the view more from the tower- yes, she just said tower, so more on that now. Rather then hotel, Fire Nation camp, or even damned alley way, they'd been led to a wretched country house! Rather, General Magnus Fior's brand new country house. He had actually had a house built in for himself in the place he was holding captive.

A tall, victorian built and yet chinese in style house made of ice-resistant iron and stone painted a camouflaging light color, three stories high. Tall, wide windows, long corridors, rooms everywhere. A large hill behind the mansion lead down to a frozen body of water. Not large enough to be a lake but not small enough to be any sort of pond. Beyond the ice, a tall forest where there could have been green though only the skeletons remained. Maybe General Fior had thought he could have another garden.

One of the multiple maids, Lana, had given her these slippers, and she'd spent the most part of the day sliding around in them, the soles were made of fur. The house had a tower, it was Magnus's tower, where he was supposed to do his work, though he spent a grand majority of his time at the camp just outside the other end of the city (thank god) and so the tower remained unoccupied and empty of any papers or records. If there was one thing about the Water Tribe that Florence Roland loved most, it wouldn't have been this country house.

She walked- or slid more so- out of the study and into the hall. "It's weird, it being so cold all of a sudden. Right when it was just spring time," she said allowed, though there was nobody to reply.

She walked up the stairs to the tower. From up above, her view was mildly better, Flo decided. She could see the city, it's Venice-esque roads (so rivers, kinda), and the tops of buildings. It would have been so spectacular.. If not for bloody Magnus Fior. She opened the window and a rush of snow entered the room. She swore, and shut it again, though for only a second she felt fathomless standing in the fury of bitter spray. Flo ran down the stairs, skipping a few and down the hall. She skidded at the dining room door and slammed it behind her. Things could get bad if it was in understanding that Flo had been tampering in the tower and accidentally layered it in ice.

She concentrated on calming her breathing, though a tap on the window shook her out of her spiritual moment. It was a messenger hawk. Immediately, she felt like shit. That poor creature, she lamented. She opened the window for it right away, avoiding another indoor snow storm and it collapsed on the table. She delicately slipped the letter out of the leather tube and unrolled it.

_Colonel Zhong and Friends Cordially Invite You To Attend_

_A Grand Ball In Honor of The Conquering of The Northern Water Tribe_

_A Half Moon From This Date at The Ice Dome_

_Please Send Response_

Florence felt her cheeks heat up.

The fact that anybody would do such a thing to any sort creature! She could now understand Cara's love to the buffalo yak earlier that day. She threw to letter onto the table.

The bird squawked.

She apologized loudly, in great surprise. She smiled at it and bent the water from the vase on the table out and into a sort of ash tray for the bird to drink from.

Flo froze.

The vase exploded and the room became drenched. Flo sunk slowly lower and lower to the ground and as she breathed the drops of water seemed to have pulses matching her own. What on earth did she just do? The bird seemed rather unaffected by her outburst. She shakily got to her feet only to inspect the damage she'd inflicted on the mahogany table.

Her attention was drawn elsewhere, not the the hawk, or the wood, or anything else in the room save for the contents of the vase which now lay limp and drenched. She allowed herself to pick it up gently and raise it to her face gingerly, her hands shaking ever so slightly.

She inhaled deeply, her senses calming moderately.

If there was one thing about the Water Tribe that Florence Roland loved the most, it would most definitely have been the flowers.

Cara

On The Verge

She lay, limbs stretched like a starfish on the open marble floor. She told herself not to make a habit of this, randomly collapsing to the ground and staring at the ceiling for hours on end- which was exactly what she'd done.

Twice in one day she thought worriedly to herself. She sat up and looked around. It was the entrance hall to the country house (fucking country house! Everybody was surprised when they found out, in fact, Landon looked just a little bit ashamed). The floor was black marble, there were red pillars and accents all around her. Outside was a billowing mess, so she had nothing to do at all. They'd decided to start research the day after.

They were going to start in the libraries and find out more about Harou Sheng, then more about the automaton, and then more about- oh hell did she know. They'd go where it took them, that's what they'd been doing since they'd arrived. Whatever 'it' happened to be, was taking them to some crazy places.

"Florence wants to talk to us," he shook her out of her daydream. "What are you doing there?"

"I think I'm dealing with recents events."

A pause.

"What _am_ I doing here?" she wondered back to him.

"Huh?"

Another pause.

"Nothing. Help me up," she reached out her hands.

"You have arms, and hopefully a brain, though I haven't seen much of it- help yourself up," he muttered, turning and walking up the stairs.

"How the hell did you get to where you are with so little respect for human kind? I don't understand, what happened to etiquette!?" she whined, pulling herself to her feet. "That's hilarious coming from you," he called. Cara took a second to messed up her hair and then followed, reluctantly albeit, after him.

Florence sat on a windowsill, muttering to herself when they entered, Landon sat next to her, so Cara then realized she wasn't muttering to herself but to the man at her side. "'Lo," Cara nodded. "We've been invited to a ball," the blonde put short.

Cara wrinkled her nose, "Ew."

"Ugh." Nico groaned, falling into a chair. So he'd been to one before, had he?

"It's to celebrate the seizing of the city. Fiends.." Flo murmured.

All eyes glared at the floor. "You've got to be kidding me. That's brutal. Why's it all wet in here?" Cara asked.

"I bended and then the vase broke and..and.." "Uh. Never mind it Flo," she tried to smile supportively in her friend's direction. "Well I wont be going, so why did you ask for me?" she questioned, shrugging her shoulders.

"Oh yes, I think you will be. Unfortunately for you, we happen to be staying with one of the most widely known families in the _world. _It would be completely unheard of to skive off an event so extravagant as a guest to the Fiors," Flo locked her gaze with Cara's. Cara was never going to admit this aloud for as long as she lived, but if looks could kill, and expressions especially, Florence Roland would have a lot of blood on her hands.

"Well.. I suppose.. It wouldn't hurt.. To.. To..be a little bit.. Social," Cara gagged on the last few words. "Magnificent." Flo murmured.

"As much as I do hate this societies way of celebrating, I think it's going to be interesting introducing you two to upper-class partying," Landon mused, scratching his chin.

Nico stood and stretched, "Well you might be able to scare her into it, but I'll be reading up on my Air Nomad Calligraphy."

"Nico." Landon's voice went low, almost threatening. Cara made the decision right there that she never wanted to hear him speak like that ever again. It was so anti-Landon it made her want to throw up or something.

"You are going to wear nice dress clothes, spend a few hours at the least talking and being charismatic or whatever it is you do when we go to parties, and then escort the elderly back to their carriages. You are going to this ball. Understood?"

"Uhm. R-right. Yeah, I guess I could stand to.. I mean.." Nico froze up uncomfortably. Florence watched in equal shock. There was uncomfortable tension that disappeared in a second. Cara giggled. And then chuckled and then laughed and then collapsed on the floor in a state of tears and on the verge of hyperventilation. She lay out on her back and wiped her eyes, still snickering.

"I-I really need to stop doing this," she tittered. "What?" a chorus of three voiced inquired.

"I seem to have found myself looking directly up at the ceiling three times today. It's quite a bother, really."

"You're offbeat," Nico muttered.

"You're exceptionally outlandish," she grumbled.

He turned and walked out the room. "What?" she called after him. "At loss of words? I tend to have that affect on people, it's okay!" she began to crack up again, almost curling into a ball when Flo walked over and pulled her to her feet.

"What's wrong with me?" she asked nobody in particular, still in stitches. "Everything that could ever be wrong with anyone, sweetie," Flo replied, pulling her out of the dining room and down the hall.

"Where we goin'?" she asked. Flo stopped to ponder.

"Er, your room," she decided.

Two minutes later Cara lay for the fourth time that day looking up at the roof. "It's nice," she said. "What is?" Flo asked, swinging her braid back around her neck. "Up. Looking up. I'm usually such a pessimist," she joked.

"I've always thought that optimism has never suited me. Not really my color, happy."

"Go to sleep Cara. Sleep until the morning. You're going to feel better. I think today was a sort of interlude of crazy for the both of us," Flo sighed.

"Im not only crazy today, Flo. I'm always crazy. You know that. I've thought up this entire world in my- with annoying boys and elements that move and a war and my dead friend and my live one."

"Wow, we've got a really similar dream lines going along here," the blue eyed one smiled. "Cara, it's not a thought up fantasy," Cara snorted at her choice of words.

"It's real. It's all real, and those boys, they aren't annoying, and your dead friend- she isn't dead. Understand that." Florence got up from her seat next to the bed and waved lightly to her dear friend. Cara made a weird sound and an ushering movement with her hand to leave.


	14. Good Ones-Look Twice-Flakes

Maude

The Greatest of Good Ones

For a moment there, she'd actually thought it was going to be perfect.

Maude hated being wrong, she was rarely, at that. When she made mistakes, they were small and fixable.

Not this one though she thought to herself, as she cushioned her bloody wrist.

It had started with music.

There was a light trill of classical melody emitting from the lit estate. Figures draped in expensive cloth and jewels waltzed and glided around the room, their silhouettes graceful and even their shadows glamourous.

Maude's cloak did little to comfort the chill of anticipation that ran up her spine as Art made her way from the bushes to the great doors. "Good luck," she whispered to Mel, Nox and Marv as they practically danced with the shaded figures moving across the lawn in silent finesse. They'd left Tru and Navy at the side of the building.

She turned her attention back to the youngest of the group. Art had dressed herself in a red kimono enlaced with red swirls and orange designs made out as flames. Colette had pulled her short brown hair back into an uncomfortable top not and secured it with a golden ribbon. All in all, Art looked uncharacteristically elegant for such a small job. Maude corrected herself mentally. For Art, this was no small job, for them all, this was no small job. For herself, if Art were to mess it up, this, was no small job.

Art walked up the steps to the doorman- more of a guard, really. He was burly and his brow had a permanent furrow to it. He held a board with a scroll clipped to it. Art produced an invitation that Mel had earlier explained was an almost exact replica of the original one hundred and forty that were sent out.

The guard and Art had began a small squabble, and Maude began to feel her insides mixing. Their voices rose. Maude didn't think twice before stepping out and making her way briskly up the steps. She placed a protective hand over Art's silk covered shoulder. "I was looking for you, Lou," and then she turned to the guard.

"I'm sorry, my cousin came outside around the back and must have fallen through the bushes. She does likes to explore. I apologize, now if we could just-" she stepped forward taking a leap of hope, pulling Art with her. Her hope was crushed in a moment.

"I'm afraid I cant let you through, miss." he grumbled- it almost felt as though he made the whole street shake with his words.

"Oh? And why's that may I ask?" she virtually accused.

"Lou, or as she told me, Dee," he stopped to glare at the smaller, "has supplied a false invitation, I cant let the likes of her into this party," he explained darkly.

"A-ah. Well, I'm sure that can be.. Sorted out." Maude pretended to look through her pockets and cloak as she scanned her mind hurriedly. She snuck a glance at Art, an expression of worry and uncertainty plastered to her face, her lips sealed in a straight line. She felt a sudden surge of responsibility for this kid, even if they'd only known each other for a couple days. Hell, she'd let Art braid her hair, they were basically best friends in the making. Maude let out a long breath and straightened up to look the guard square in the eye.

"Listen sir-" "AUUGH!" she heard a blood-curdling cry of shock and let out another sigh, though this time mostly of relief.

"I guess that's them," she winked at Art and the brunette made a grab for the elder's hand. They turned to run but did not bargain on the unexpected.

"You are responsible for this, are you not?!" the guard bellowed in wrath.

"What are you-" a sharp pain in her chest threw her back, it took her a moment to get up, though the sight of an injured Art hurried her over.

"Are you okay?!" she mumbled. "Mm-fine. S'okay. Lesgetout," her words slurred.

"No! I will bring you to the head of the house so you might give your explanation!" the guard exclaimed wickedly, moving towards the two.

"Not going to happen," Maude muttered, scooping up Art and lifting with effort. She ducked back into the bushes they'd been previously occupying. A quick glance to the estate and she had it confirmed that the others had succeeded, as water dripped down the steps. She allowed herself a second of satisfaction before it was hit out of her. Literally. She fell back onto the cobblestone road and her hands stopped any head damage. Maude let out a quiet moan of discomfort and propped herself up before falling once more. Her hands were ruined, blood trickled down her wrists.

She looked to the guard who neared her rapidly. At least he was leaving Art alone, she thought before narrowly dodging his swipe. She awkwardly rolled onto her feet and pulled the knife she'd been given in precaution from her belt. It felt awfully foreign in her hands and she made the decision that she had no fondness in the slightest to such heavy and bulky weaponry.

He threw himself at her once more and she jabbed aimlessly with the dagger, cutting deep into his lower arm. He let out a grunt of anger and pain and turned around again, attempting a recovery. There was even more viciousness in his eyes then before.

He lunged. She raised her arms weakly.

"Run!" he shouted. But it wasn't the bad one, it was the good one, the greatest of good ones telling her to get away.

Maude turned on her heel and sprinted from the scene as quickly as she could, unaware of her surroundings. After what felt like hours of dizzy distraction and confusion she slumped to the ground in defeat. An unfamiliar smell surrounded her and she opened her eyes again.

Oh.

Oh god.

She turned around in her seated position and pulled her knees into her arms. She felt as though it were still burning, and as though she was back in that whereabouts once again, being carried out of the burning house who's ashes and wrecked possessions she now found herself encircled by.

Florence

Look Twice

Florence Roland was surely in love with the concept of love, she knew it and cared deeply not to mention it.

Maude Smith considered trying love though never executed. Books, logic and history were enough love for her, she knew it.

Cara Haze ever only thought of love in a disdainful way. She knew it, who needs love when you don't have enough time or thought for it.

Artende Tine didn't think love had anything to do with her. She was young and she knew it, she loved her brother and that was the only love she could understand.

Maeve Deboeur was about as 'in love' as the average seventeen-year-old girl could be. She was beautiful and she very well knew it, love for herself was as far as it had ever gone.

Flo drew the last curl onto the scroll and sat back to examine her small sketch. It was clearly Maude, the similarities were uncanny, and she didn't look very happy. Flo crumpled it up and tossed it over her shoulders in defeat.

She stood up and walked over to the window. The room she'd been given would be hers for however long it would take to conclude this Harou Sheng business. That could be days, months, possibly years for all she knew, so she'd pointedly dumped out her belongings and splayed them across the floor, as to give it a more homey look. Flo had earlier decided that morning, when she'd first opened her bright blue eyes, that she wanted to remain inconspicuous for the duration of their stay in the Water Tribe, as to avoid drama. And so, she ignored the red clothes and materials dotted across the wooden planks beneath her feat and set out in a long robe in search of her close friend.

She tapped on the door lightly, met by expected silence. Flo twisted the door nob and it swung open soundlessly. She smirked to herself as she regarded Cara, really rather asleep, and laying in a chaos of blankets, breathing lightly.

She admired her friend's anti-ladylike charm for a moment more. "Cara," she exclaimed loudly.

The white haired girl swore herself awake. "We need to find some Water Tribe clothes and go to a library," she smiled sweetly, rolling her eyes.

"What time is it?" Cara inquired, wiping her eyes and standing up. "I don't know. Come on," she turned to walk out of the room, then bumped into someone.

"Oh good lord! I apologize miss," somebody cried. "Lana. It's okay, calm down," she smiled to the maid who continued to murmur apology after apology. Lana hesitantly looked up to her.

Lana might have been about twenty years old, short, brunette, adorable and low-confidence possessive. "I've brought these for you both, Miss," she looked down, her voice hushed.

Lana produced a pile of blue and white materials. "Oh! Thank you, Lana. It means a lot for you to have gone to such a length-" "-It's my job, miss," Lana cut her off with a sad smile. "R-right. I'll see you later, Lana," she took the clothes from the maid and turned back into the room. Flo let them drop out of her hands and collapsed to her knees, sorting through them for anything that appealed.

In the end the two found themselves comfortable in what suited them best. Cara still remained in her trusty combat boots, to which Flo acknowledged with a slight distaste.

It was then she noticed the patronizing look that the shorter shot her way. "What?" Flo asked, rather taken aback. "Oh.. It's nothing," Cara shrugged. "Just that your hair looks... a bit boring," she sniffed.

"Excuse me?" Flo froze, her face became dark and threatening as she rounded on the other.

"Yeesh, keep calm beauty queen. I'm just saying that it might look a little more interesting braided or something," she suggested.

"Like your hair isn't the devil's bird nest. If anybody needs a little more hair care then I think we both know it isn't me," Flo snorted. "I'm fully aware of my own hair's current state. I'm just saying that a certain green eyed, brown haired, red shoe clad young man might stand to look twice in the case that you were to change your standard styles. I understand that you make the effort often enough to mix it up a bit- or whatever- but you could try for something tricky and detailed," Cara lay back on the bed.

"Since when did you become such an appearance outlet?" Flo asked casually, walking back over to the door. "Uhm. What? N-no I'm not-" "Okay, alright, fine. You go ahead and braid away," Flo grinned, sitting on the mattress.

"Splendid," Cara regained confidence quickly and shot up again. She rubbed her hands together manically, almost as if she had something sinister planned.

Minutes later, after multiple 'ow's and 'what are you doing to my hair's were exclaimed, Cara examined her 'masterpiece' with precision. "I suppose it could do with some work. Though we may want to get going at this point. It's already-" she checked her watch.

"-An hour before lunch."

"Good lord, is it really?" Flo exclaimed. Here they were braiding hair when so much research awaited them. Maude would be disappointed, she though drearily to herself.

"C'mon. We should go to the library or whatever." They exited the room with haste. "You say 'whatever', a lot, you know," Flo mused.

"Bugger off," Cara said drily.

"Touchy, touchy," she hummed. Not much else was said between the two. They arrived, clad in cloaks, at the base of the building in front of a carriage, possibly the same one from their coming to the Water Tribe. Cara greeted the buffalo yak with friendlier appeal then she did the driver.

Cara

Flakes

When the two entered the great Record Hall the time of day was that when the sun shone it's brightest in all of it's glory, doing little to warm the great frozen city.

They were thoroughly if not _over_ greeted by the staff who had been notified earlier that day of their arrival. They appeared Water Tribe, though a Fire Nation guard stood at every corner and doorway. After settling down with some bread and tea (snuck in for fear of confiscation, it was after all a Library, perhaps containing resources dating back thousands of years), Florence Roland, and Cara Haze, set immediately to work.

"Alright. This is how we're doing things," Flo trailed. "I'll look in on Harou Sheng in the persons records of the Water Tribe," they silently acknowledged the unlimited access they'd been given.

"And you look in on anything automaton or Polar Bear Dog." Cara nodded slowly in appreciation, her eyebrows raised.

She eventually gave a small smile and turned. "See you on the other side, mate," she giggled dramatically.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Flo wondered in all seriousness, earning silence on the other's behalf as she trailed away through the tall shelves, tea and bread in hand.

Minutes later, emerald eyes surveyed glazed wooden shelves dully. Cara wetted her lips and reached out her hand, delicately plucking 'A History and Guide to Water Tribe Mechanism' from the third row up. She'd earlier made her way to the clockwork aisle (a whole aisle- just for clockworks!) and now sat herself atop a table. Seats at this point seemed much too boring.

She pulled back strands of white hair and tied it into an odd lump at the back of her head. She wiped her eyes again. She opened the old, crusted parchment. The reading began.

'_Mechanics have been the worlds way of transferring power and precious resources for years. In the Fire Nation, mechanics are a massive contribution to travel and security. The Earth Kingdom and Air Nomads however, managed their governments and societies without the help of clockwork. Though the Water Tribe remains traditional in plenty of it's studies and practices, it simply cannot fend in conditions so inhumane as the frigid airs and ices you find it's cities without help from mechanical technique. To read on the history of mechanics in the Water Tribe, continue. To view guidance on Water Tribe mechanics, turn to Part II.'_

Cara continued on, letting out an extravagant sigh.

And then it was two hours later, she had a pile of notes, literal bread crumbs, and a heavy conscience. What exactly was it they planned to accomplish all in all? She understood 100% this was in honor of Maude's incredibly untimely awful death, though she couldn't help but wonder what they were honoring her with.

"I've found you! Hah! That's two gold pieces for me, Landon.." Nico appeared abruptly, sitting down next to her.

Cara let out an unattractive screech, surprised at the intrusion, "Are you trying to kill me?!"

"That wasn't my intention, no, though I feel myself regretting it all so suddenly. We were just making sure you weren't being tortured or anything, but then, nothing is much worse then Water Tribe temperature. It's freezing out there, I'll have you know-"

"What do you want?"

"Only to see you," he trailed sarcastically, flicking hair out of his eyes.

She buried her face in her hands for a moment. "Don't be a git."

"That's a little mean," Nico told her blithely.

Cara thought for a moment, was it really that much worse then all the other insults? She lifted her head. "If you felt hurt by something a bland as that then you'll have to know that I fear for your mental state in the future." He gave her an odd look that may have been to mysterious for both their goods. After a stretch, his mouth returned to it's natural arrogant smirk.

"Relax, Flakes.."

"Of course, why would the great Nico d'Elric care.. Wait. What did you just call me?"

His smirk widened to a full out grin. Waving it off, he got to his feet and chuckled: "See you around, Flakes, I'd better go and make myself known to the others," on his way out of the aisle. She caught a glimpse of triumph in his eye moments before he disappeared from sight.

Flakes.

Flakes?

Cara swore loudly and hopped off the table.

"Oi! What's this all about?" she demanded once caught up.

He smiled to himself, "I haven't the faintest what you're saying."

"Don't be snarky, what's with the sudden Flakes? I'm not flakey, I'm lazy but I get my shit done-"

"Wrong," he hummed.

"Is not! I know when I'm being-"

"No, no, no. You haven't gotten the meaning of the nickname, that's what was wrong," he corrected.

She scrunched up her brow. He'd thought up a nickname for her- with a hidden meaning?

"I think you've got an infatuation with me," she finally announced.

Nico stopped and everything became very, very quiet. The shadows from the looming shelves seemed to darken. Yes- she thought. I must be right! Nico started to shake. Was.. Was he crying? She pattered over to him without the slightest keenness and studied his face. Of course, she should have guessed it.

"Shut up!" she slapped his arm. He was laughing, yes he was crying, but only because he was laughing so hard that is was actually causing tears to flow from his eyes. His face was contorted, and he practically wheezed his way to the floor, clutching his stomach.

"Th-that's priceless!" he exclaimed. "An inf-infatuat-tuation. With you! Tch-" and it continued for a good three minutes.

"Well why else would you come up with a nickname containing so much unneeded depth!?" she cried, sinking to her knees with him so they were eye to eye. Gold met green for a second.

"Why on earth do you think?" he whispered. "To _annoy_ you," he said it like it were the most obvious thing.

"You're deranged," she said stonily.

"And you, are mislead," he replied softly, eyebrows raised.

Eventually Cara grumbled, "Flakes, my ass." She stood. "Where are Flo and Landon at?"

"I have no idea, Flakes. Why don't we go find them together?" he grinned.

"How about no?" she sniffed glancing down upon him and swerving on her heal. Her white hair swooshed with her, like flurries of ice in a blizzard. Constantly billowing about, causing discomfort, making an impression, yet still so serene in their own odd way. Nico silently decided that the nickname may have said too much about her for either of their own goods. Eventually, the flurries would fall to the ground as crystallized water. Or better known,

snow

flakes.


End file.
